Kindl Shocks in Luge Finale

From St. Moritz, SUI

(January 22, 2022) – Coming into the second heat of the race in St. Moritz it seemed as though Wolfgang Kindl was at best going to slide to a bronze medal. He found himself in third, well behind leaders Dominik Fischnaller and Johannes Ludwig.

But the day would turn out to be Kindl’s.

Wolfgang Kindl slid into the lead on his second run, just .021 ahead of Latvia’s Kristers Aparjods, with Nico Gleirscher in third. That left just Ludwig and Fischnaller to go, both of whom were well ahead coming into the run.

Ludwig went first, but made a mistake early that would set him down the order and eventually finish 11th. It was then Fischnaller’s shot to win gold but he also make a mistake above the famed Horseshoe curve and that’s all it took to plummet to eighth.

That handed the gold medal to Wolfgang Kindl, his tenth. Aparjods finished second, and Gleirscher third, up from seventh in the first heat.

Felix Loch jumped up from ninth to finish fourth, ahead of Jonas Müller and Leon Felderer who rounded out the top six.

The United States put two athletes in the top 20 in the season finale in St. Moritz. Jonny Gustafson tied a season-best finish with a 14th place effort. Teammate Chris Mazdzer will go into his fourth Olympics on the back of an 18th place run.

Alex Ferlazzo finished a season-best 20th for Australia, while Reid Watts finished 23rd as the lone Canadian in the field, up from 24th in the first heat.

Johannes Ludwig had already clinched the season title prior to the race in St. Moritz, behind him Wolfgang Kindl was able to hold of Felix Loch to finish the season in second place. Loch finished the year in third, tied with Kristers Aparjods.

Results: