Austria Wins Relay Gold in Yanqing, USA Silver

From Yanqing, CHN

(November 21, 2021) – Austria backed up a gold medal in the women’s luge race earlier Sunday morning with a gold medal in the team relay event, while the United States rallied from an otherwise forgetful weeked to win silver.

Because they had only competed in a handful of relay events during the 2020/2021 season, the United States was the fourth team off the top of the 2022 Olympic track. They watched as Romania, Korea, Slovakia, Poland, Ukraine, and Italy all failed to knock them out of the top spot (though Italy missed by just .003).

Austria, from the 11th starting spot, flexed their muscles as they cruised into the lead on the strength of the team of Steu & Koller’s run.

After the Austrians’ run, Latvia’s singles competitors both made crucial mistake that Sics & Sics could not bail them  out of, and then Tatyana Ivanova crashed to knock Russia out.

That left Germany, the winningest team of them all. Early on it seemed as though the Germans would cruise to victory yet again in the team relay. By the time Johannes Ludwig crossed the line it was nearly a full second advantage from the Germans to the Austrian.

That left what should have been a victory lap for Toni Eggert & Sascha Benecken. The Yanqing gold medalists had Germany well ahead until tragedy struck. The duo crashed, and while they got the sled righted, they’d lost any speed they had and the team fell back to seventh.

That gave Austria the gold medal, and the United States a silver. Italy missed out on silver by .003 and took bronze.

Latvia, Canada, and South Korea rounded out the top six.

Results: