Singles, Men

Since Nagano the trio of Germany’s Georg Hackl, Markus Prock of Austria and Armin Zöggeler of Italy had continued to dominate men’s luge almost to the exclusion of anyone else. The big difference this time was that Hackl was no longer the overwhelming force that he had been in previous years and Prock too was approaching the end of his career. Zöggeler , a Carabiniere from the Sud-Tirol had won the World Championships in the two previous seasons and was, in contrast to his rivals, at 28–years-old, approaching the peak of his career. The Italian held a narrow lead after the first run but Hackl was faster over the second and only 0.04 separated the two at the end of day one. The title was effectively decided on the third run as Hackl faltered and Zöggeler gained two tenths of a second on him. Although Hackl failed to win his fourth successive gold medal in this event his silver medal ensured his fifth successive medal of any colour. With the gold medal headed for Italy the other matter to decide was the fate of the bronze medal. Adam Heidt of the USA threatened to win America’s first ever Olympic singles medal but to the disappointment of the home crowd Markus Prock held on to add another medal, his third in his sixth Winter Olympics, to his collection. A record 50 men took part in this event with the Venezuelans Werner and Chris Hoeger providing a rare instance of a father and son combination competing against each other.