From Beijing, CHN
(February 7, 2022) – The two-time reigning and defending Olympic gold medalist Natalie Geisenberger took charge on the Olympic track in Yanqing and put herself two runs away from a third gold medal.
Geisenberger entered the second heat of competition in second place, .057 behind teammate and World Cup champion and new track record holder Julia Taubitz. In that second heat Taubitz crashed where so many athletes had trouble, the long bend just before the final curve, and plummeted down the time sheet to eventually finish the day in 14th place.
Geisenberger had no such trouble. She was the quickest in the second run by nearly a full tenth of a second and ended the day .208 ahead of teammate Anna Berreiter. Berreiter was clean in both of her runs and finished her day well ahead of anyone else.
Despite her lead, Geisenberger isn’t content with being out in front.
“”I’m not thinking about this position because so many crashes,” she said. “So many bad situations because of exit 13. I’m happy that I had two pretty good runs. The first run I had a little mistake also in exit 13. It’s a hard situation. I will maybe not sleep so well today.”
Tatyana Ivanova finished the day in third place, nearly .4 behind Berreiter.
Austria expected to have a slider contending for medals in Beijing. It ended the second run with two women in contention with Hannah Prock and Lisa Schulte, who finished the day in fourth and fifth. The woman Austria expected to contend for medals, World Cup runner up Madeleine Egle, crashed in her first run. On her second trip down she set the second quickest run of the heat to jump up from 17th to seventh, .03 behind Eliza Tiruma in sixth.
Though she’s moved up in the order, Egle doesn’t feel as though she can get into the medals.
“I don’t think that it will be enough for a medal, but I think that I can still make up some spots and I just really want to have good runs. Yeah, that’s all I want and I need.”
The American women had a nightmare of a race throughout the first two runs of the women’s luge program. Ashley Farquharson made a few big mistakes early in her run but otherwise made it down the track in Yanqing relatively unscaved and finished the day in 18th place. For the team’s two Olympic veterans it was a much different story. Summer Britcher crashed late in her first run to leave her 29th after the first run. A clean and relatively quick second run moved her up the order to 26th place. Emily Sweeney entered the second heat in tenth place but a similar crash dropped her all the way back to 28th place.
Despite her crash in the first heat, Britcher still is enjoying the experience of being an Olympic luge athlete.
“When I decided to commit to another four years, I decided – not at first, but somewhere along the way – whatever the outcome, win or lose, crash, track record, mistakes…I wanted to come away feeling joyful having competed at this level and joyful for the experience and no regrets,” she said after her second run.
For Canada it was a much different story. Their trio of young athletes all made it down relatively cleanly and left themselves in position to all finish their Olympics in the top 20. As she’s done all season, Trinity Ellis led the Canadian women’s luge effort with a 13th place run, up from 16th in the first heat. Natalie Corless and Makena Hodgson both find themselves solidly in the top 20 in 15th and 17th place, respectively.
The women’s luge race will continue on February 8 at 6:50 AM ET.
Results After 2 Runs:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | FIL Rank | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Natalie Geisenberger | GER | 1 | 3 | 7.210 | 7.229 | 58.402 | 58.423 | 1:56.825 |
| 2 | Anna Berreiter | GER | 3 | 4 | 7.213 | 7.211 | 58.525 | 58.508 | 1:57.033 |
| 3 | Tatyana Ivanova | ROC | 6 | 17 | 7.205 | 7.202 | 58.733 | 58.683 | 1:57.416 |
| 4 | Hannah Prock | AUT | 12 | 9 | 7.275 | 7.308 | 58.762 | 58.732 | 1:57.494 |
| 5 | Lisa Schulte | AUT | 10 | 8 | 7.261 | 7.268 | 58.523 | 59.074 | 1:57.597 |
| 6 | Eliza Tiruma | LAT | 9 | 5 | 7.259 | 7.254 | 58.956 | 58.849 | 1:57.805 |
| 7 | Madeleine Egle | AUT | 2 | 1 | 7.164 | 7.192 | 59.342 | 58.493 | 1:57.835 |
| 8 | Verna Hofer | ITA | 19 | 14 | 7.257 | 7.271 | 58.960 | 59.037 | 1:57.997 |
| 9 | Kendija Aparjode | LAT | 28 | 11 | 7.263 | 7.289 | 59.107 | 59.020 | 1:58.127 |
| 10 | Natalie Maag | SUI | 18 | 18 | 7.276 | 7.277 | 59.018 | 59.117 | 1:58.135 |
| 11 | Elina Vitola | LAT | 4 | 12 | 7.212 | 7.241 | 59.025 | 59.140 | 1:58.165 |
| 12 | Andrea Vötter | ITA | 8 | 7 | 7.249 | 7.243 | 59.145 | 59.045 | 1:58.190 |
| 13 | Trinity Ellis | CAN | 15 | 22 | 7.285 | 7.284 | 59.219 | 59.053 | 1:58.272 |
| 14 | Julia Taubitz | GER | 5 | 2 | 7.214 | 7.241 | 58.345 | 60.075 | 1:58.420 |
| 15 | Natalie Corless | CAN | 29 | 36 | 7.340 | 7.368 | 59.193 | 59.316 | 1:58.509 |
| 16 | Nina Zöggeler | ITA | 13 | 15 | 7.344 | 7.276 | 59.464 | 59.160 | 1:58.624 |
| 17 | Makena Hodgson | CAN | 17 | 28 | 7.328 | 7.322 | 59.505 | 59.477 | 1:58.982 |
| 18 | Ashley Farquharson | USA | 24 | 16 | 7.318 | 7.353 | 59.972 | 59.024 | 1:58.996 |
| 19 | Olena Stetskiv | UKR | 20 | 26 | 7.262 | 7.281 | 59.663 | 59.586 | 1:59.249 |
| 20 | Tove Kohala | SWE | 30 | 37 | 7.315 | 7.325 | 59.533 | 59.776 | 1:59.309 |
| 21 | Aileen Frisch | KOR | 26 | 33 | 7.264 | 7.266 | 59.776 | 59.624 | 1:59.400 |
| 22 | Yuliana Tunytska | UKR | 25 | 31 | 7.261 | 7.269 | 59.690 | 69.844 | 1:59.534 |
| 23 | Veronica Ravenna | ARG | 34 | 45 | 7.418 | 7.437 | 59.811 | 59.780 | 1:59.591 |
| 24 | Klaudia Domaradzka | POL | 22 | 34 | 7.214 | 7.308 | 59.871 | 59.892 | 1:59.763 |
| 25 | Katarina Simonakova | SVK | 21 | 30 | 7.335 | 7.342 | 60.124 | 59.851 | 1:59.975 |
| 26 | Summer Britcher | USA | 23 | 13 | 7.314 | 7.297 | 60.986 | 59.156 | 2:00.142 |
| 27 | Peixuan Wang | CHN | 32 | 41 | 7.331 | 7.320 | 60.986 | 60.391 | 2:01.377 |
| 28 | Emily Sweeney | USA | 14 | 19 | 7.267 | 7.253 | 58.971 | 62.439 | 2:01.410 |
| 29 | Anna Cezikova | CZE | 31 | 40 | 7.349 | 7.389 | 60.392 | 61.169 | 2:01.561 |
| 30 | Raluca Stramaturaru | ROU | 16 | 25 | 7.331 | 7.360 | 61.357 | 60.305 | 2:01.662 |
| 31 | Viktoriia Demchenko | ROC | 11 | 6 | 7.210 | 7.215 | 58.869 | 63.466 | 2:02.335 |
| 32 | Sin-Rong Lin | TPE | 33 | 46 | 7.378 | 7.386 | 61.550 | 61.057 | 2:02.607 |
| 33 | Doina Descalui | MDA | 35 | 50 | 7.495 | 7.529 | 61.928 | 62.192 | 2:04.120 |
| 34 | Elsa Desmond | IRL | 27 | 54 | 7.456 | 7.497 | 61.608 | 63.857 | 2:05.465 |
| DNF | Ekaterina Katnikova | ROC | 7 | 10 | 7.284 | DNF | DNF |