Luge

Tobogganing is one of the oldest winter sports, with descriptions of it found in 16th century literature. As a racing sport, it can be traced to the mid-19th century, when British tourists started sledding on the snowbound roads of the Alps. The original form of the sport was the skeleton sleds that were used on the Cresta Run, at St. Moritz.

Luge spread to Switzerland in the 1890s, as a variant of the skeleton race. The first recorded competitions took place in 1890, at the Innsbruck-based Academic Alpine Club. An International Tobogganing Association was formed in 1913, and the first European Championships were held in 1914, at Reichenfeld, Austria.

At the International Olympic Committee (IOC) meeting in Athinai in 1954, luge tobogganing was recognized as an official Olympic sport, replacing skeleton, for which only one suitable track existed at the time (in St. Moritz). The first World luge championships were contested in Oslo in 1955, and an IF, the Fédération Internationale de Luge de Course (FIL), was formed on 25 January 1957, in Davos, Switzerland. In January 2025, the organization’s name was changed to the current Fédération Internationale de Luge. The acronym FIL and the English name, International Luge Federation, did not change, however. As of January 2026, 52 federations are currently members of the FIL.

In 1959, luge was approved for the 1964 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck. Since that time, the sport has been contested at all Olympic Winter Games, with singles events for men and women, and also a doubles event, which was technically open to women until Beijing 2022, but in practice was only contested by men. A team mixed relay event was added to the programme in 2014 in Sochi. At Milano-Cortina 2026, the open doubles was split into men’s and women’s doubles for the first time in Olympic history.

The sport is dominated by German-speaking athletes from Germany (including East Germany and West Germany), Austria, and Italy (South Tyrol), who have together won 143 of the 168 medals awarded in the sport, and 56 of 57 gold medals. As of 2026, Germany’s Tobias Arlt and Tobias Wendl lead the men’s competition, both with eight medals (seven golds and one bronze). The women’s tally is also led by a German, Natalie Geisenberger, who has won seven medals and six golds in her four Olympic appearances.

Sadly, luge has also seen two Olympic deaths, with Kazimierz Kay-Skrzypecki (1964) and Nodar Kumaritashvili (2010) being killed during training sessions.