Winter Olympics 2022 - Germany complete luge sweep as Natalie Geisenberger wins sixth gold in thrilling relay

Updated 10/02/2022 at 15:20 GMT

Legend Natalie Geisenberger secured the triple double over three Winter Olympics by helping Germany to team relay gold, having won the singles earlier in the week. The 34-year-old - the greatest female luger of all time - now has six Olympic titles. Johannes Ludwig and the doubles pair of Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt also won their second gold of the Games.

'The most exciting luge race I've ever watched' - Williams on Germany winning gold

Germany completed a clean sweep of luge gold medals at the Beijing Winter Olympics after winning a thrilling team relay, as legend Natalie Geisenberger picked up the sixth gold of her career.

Johannes Ludwig backed up his singles gold, as did doubles champions Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt, to beat Austria in silver and Latvia in bronze.

Geisenberger, the greatest female luger of all time, now has six Olympic golds and a bronze, making her the most decorated Olympic luge athlete of all time. Wendl and Arlt are also up to six golds over three Games and the trio have won every event they have entered at the Olympics since Sochi 2014.

Beijing 2022

'Any luge athlete should be studying her' - Williams in awe of Geisenberger

08/02/2022 at 17:35

Poland led after six teams put their efforts down, but Canada - who included the doubles pair which helped the team win silver four years ago in Tristan Walker and Justin Snith - produced a fierce time to beat.

With the big hitters yet to go, the Russian Olympic Committee edged that time to put them in contention with four teams remaining.

Italy failed to threaten the medals, but Latvia stepped up the competition to guarantee themselves a spot on the podium, before Austria leapfrogged them ahead of their German neighbours, who were the overwhelming favourites to take gold going into the event.

'Hats off to them' - Williams praises Austria performance in dramatic luge relay

The time thrown down would be a tough one to overcome, and Geisenberger made an uncharacteristic mistake on her singles run, leaving an uphill battle for the rest of the team to make up time. Ludwig clawed back some of the deficit, but the Tobi's of Wendl and Arlt got the Germans back in the green.

There was still to be a nervous end - as the doubles pair wobbled out of the final turn and on to the straight, but smashing the paddle to take victory by just 0.08s.

Germany have won every team relay since it was added to the programme in Sochi 2014 - but the Austrians gave them their greatest challenge so far.

- - -

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

Beijing 2022