Team Relay, Mixed

Germany won its third consecutive gold medal in the mixed team relay having won it each time it has been on the Olympic Programme. Their team consisted of Natalie Geisenberger, the doubles pair of Tobias Arlt and Tobias Wendl, and Johannes Ludwig. All the German sliders had won their individual or doubles events earlier in the Beijing Games, making them clear favourites in the mixed relay.

Germany swept the luge gold medals in Beijing, something that has been achieved four times before, and all were by German teams. The German Democratic Republic did so in 1976 and 1988, and Germany in 1998 and 2014. Only the 2014 Germany sweep was over four events as opposed to three in the other years, as the mixed team relay was added to that year’s Olympic programme.

The German team was very experienced as all four sliders grew up training together. Geisenberger, Arlt, and Wendl were 34-years-old, while Ludwig was almost 36. Ludwig became the oldest gold medallist in this event at 35 years, 361 days. He was the second oldest gold medallist in any luge event, after Sylke Otto in 2006 women’s singles, who was 36 years, 221 days

Geisenberger and Wendl/Arlt won their third gold medals in the event, while Ludwig won his second, as the German team was the same foursome that won gold in 2018. Arlt, Wendl and Geisenberger all won their sixth luge gold medals, the best ever for Olympic luge sliders. This also puts all three in a tie for fifth place for most gold medals at the Olympic Winter Games. Geisenberger then became Germany’s most successful winter Olympian with six gold and one bronze in total.

The German victory was much closer than expected, as their margin over the second-placed Austrian team was only 0.08 seconds, and Germany trailed for much of the relay, with only Arlt and Wendl pulling ahead on their run. The Austrian team consisted of Madeleine Egle, Wolfgang Kindl, and the doubles pair of Thomas Steu and Lorenz Koller.

Latvia took the bronze medal, almost a full second behind Germany. Their team roster was Elīza Tīruma-Cauce, Kristers Aparjods, and the doubles pair of Mārtiņš Bots and Roberts Plūme. Austria and Latvia had both medalled in this event previously, Austria winning bronze in 2018 and Latvia taking bronze in 2014. Plūme became the youngest male medallist in this event at 21 years, 341 days.