Germany Wins Luge Team Relay Gold Medal at Winter Olympics 2018

Germany continued their domination of the luge at the 2018 Winter Olympics Thursday as they coasted to gold in the relay event. 

The team of Natalie Geisenberger, Johannes Ludwig, Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt put together a spectacular run, posting a time of two minutes, 24.124 seconds. They were 0.355 seconds clear of Canada in second spot, while Austria did enough for third.

It was heartbreak for the United States foursome, as they missed out on bronze by 0.1 seconds at the Olympic Sliding Centre.

Here are the results from the luge relay, as Germany capped off a fine competition with some more excellent sliding.

Luge Relay Result

1. Germany: 2:24.517

2. Canada: 2:24.872

3. Austria: 2:24.988

For the result in full visit the Pyeongchang website.

Germany Dominant in Luge Relay

Richard Heathcote/Getty Images

While the luge competition started with major disappointment for Germany after Felix Loch, the big favourite in the men's event, faltered on his last run to drop out of the medals, the rest of the squad have responded well.

In Geisenberger they boasted the women's gold medalist, while the duo of Wendt and Arlt were winners in the doubles too. Naturally, they were expected to make it three golds from four events here as a result.

There was drama aplenty ahead of Germany's last run, however, as the teams in front of them continued to consistently lower the track record. 

It was Italy who laid down the first real eye-raising time of 2:25.093, and they would've hoped that was enough for a medal. But the United States, including men's silver medalist Chris Mazdzer in their squad, beat them by just 0.002 seconds.

Following Team USA were three more squads, with Canada next up. And they were able to conjure something special to take the summit, leaving the United States watching on nervously. As we can see courtesy of the Pyeongchang account, they were pleased with the performance:

The run was enough to guarantee a medal for Canada, with only Austria and Germany to come. And things got even better for them when the Austrian squad were only good enough for second.

That meant Canada would at least finish in the silver-medal position, and they were delighted with that outcome, as noted by CBC Olympics:

Meanwhile, Josh Clipperton of the Canadian Press reflected on how big an achievement it was for Canada to take two medals from the luge at the Games after what happened in Sochhi:

The results were bad news for the United States, though, as barring some huge mistakes from the German team, they were destined to come up short in their medal pursuit.

Any hopes of some uncharacteristic mistakes from Germany were dashed quickly, as Geisenberger stormed off the start and set her team up for what was eventually a comfortable win.