'Any luge athlete should be studying her' - Amy Williams in awe of Natalie Geisenberger after record third gold

Published 08/02/2022 at 17:35 GMT

"I am so, so happy for her. The most decorated luge athlete of all time, male or female. Two golds in Sochi, two golds in Pyongchang, and now a gold here," speaking on Eurosport's Cube, Williams couldn't hide her joy at Geisenberger's achievement. Watch every moment of Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 on discovery+.

'I'm shaking!' - Williams reacts to incredible gold in luge

Amy Williams has admitted she was ‘shaking’ with joy after watching Natalie Geisenberger become the first woman to win three Olympic luge singles titles.

Following gold medals in the event in 2014 and 2018, the German secured her latest win by a margin of 0.493 over her fellow German Anita Berreiter.

Geisenberger equalled the singles record of three wins set by Georg Hackl on the men's side and also secured her fifth gold medal in total after team relay wins at the previous two Games.

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Reacting to the 34-year-old’s achievement in the Eurosport Cube, 2010 Skeleton gold medallist Williams was effusive in her praise for the luge legend.

Williams said: “Oh my word! You could just see her emotion. I am so, so happy for her. The most decorated luge athlete of all time, male or female.

“Two golds in Sochi, two golds in Pyongchang, and now a gold here. And if she then goes on to potentially win another gold in the relay, she's got another chance.

“She's been in this Olympic position so many times before, she knows how to hold it together.

'She's the greatest of all time' - Geisenberger wins third successive luge gold

“You know, any luge athlete should be looking at her, studying her, watching her, watching videos of her.

"To be in that right mindset time, and time, and time again, she never loses focus. She just kept cool, and just nailed it.

“And it was just beautiful to see, beautiful to see the emotion. I'm kind of shaking.”

“You know you bring home that medal for yourself, for your team, for your nation, for your country. And just look, it means absolutely everything to her.”

Geisenberger set a track record of 58.266 on her penultimate run to all but seal the gold ahead of her fellow Berreiter, before securing victory by almost half a second in her final run of the day.

German great Geisenberger equals luge singles gold medal record

Williams praised Geisenberger for remaining focused when the gold was in sight, casting her mind back to her own victory in Vancouver.

She said: “For me it was very much, ‘I'm going to count my corners on the way down’ and ‘I'm going to execute the steers and every corner’ just as I have practiced them.

“Track walks, visualization, we write down notes and you're just perfecting it, getting it right into your body so that everything is just automatic.

“That is her doing the most automatic run. And there she nailed it."

Watch every moment of Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 on discovery+

Beijing 2022