Germany Holds Off USA in Luge Relay

From St. Moritz, SUI

(February 19, 2023) – It may have been closer than they appreciated, but Germany won the Team Relay gold medal in St. Moritz and took the World Cup lead with one race to go in the 2022/2023 season.

Of the race contenders, Austria was the first team off the top and slid into the lead well ahead of Poland, Romania, and China, all of whom had already slid. Nico Gleirscher in particular put down the quickest time of all of the men to give Austria a commanding lead to that point.

Austria’s relatively clean and quick run was quickly outshone by the United States. The team of Emily Sweeney, Tucker West, and Zack Digregorio and Sean Hollander had three very clean slides, enough to put them in the lead by .161.

Italy, who had been so good in the relay over the course of the season, saw any hope of a first or second place overall finish in the season standings go by the wayside as Emanuel Rieder and Simon Kainzwaldner false started, which led to a disqualification for the Italians.

It was then Germany’s turn. The Germans had all three gold medalists from the weekend on their team, and Eitberger put the team ahead early. Max Langenhan, however, had his worst slide since coming back from injury and as he hit the paddle the team was behind the Americans.

But Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt had an outstanding slide to give Germany the lead with only Latvia to go.

Latvia entered the race tied for the points lead with Germany, and had the tiebreak advantage if the season points stayed locked up. But bumpy runs for both Sigita Berzina and Kristers Aparjods set the team well back, and they finished their event in fourth place, giving Germany gold.

Germany’s margin of victory was .254 over the United States in second place, with Austria back in third.

Latvia, Poland, and Romania rounded out the top six.

With one race to go in the World Cup season Germany holds a 40 point lead over Latvia, with no other nations within reach of the top two positions. The United States’ silver medal moved them to third, only 15 points ahead of Italy, with Austria back in fifth.

Results: