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 Athina 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 in 1957. As of 2024, 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 is technically open to women, but in practice only contested by men. A team mixed relay event was added to the programme in 2014.

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 130 of the 153 medals awarded in the sport, and 51 of 52 gold medals. As of 2022, Germany’s Tobias Arlt and Tobias Wendl lead the men’s competition, both with six medals, all gold. 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.