Johannes Ludwig informed all his competitors in November that he would be the one to win at the Beijing Olympics. He was correct.
Ludwig is the Olympic men’s champion for the first time, making him the oldest to win the gold medal in that race. He’ll turn 36 in eight days. Ludwig finished four runs at the Yanqing Sliding Center in 3 minutes, 48.735 seconds, 0.160 seconds faster than Austria’s Wolfgang Kindl and 0.951 seconds faster than Italy’s bronze medalist Dominik Fischnaller.
“I had a lot of unsuccessful years,” Ludwig admitted. “I did not qualify for the Olympics in 2014. I think I had five fourth-place finishes at world championships. The fun of this sport is to always keep pushing, and I believe this medal proves that I did the right thing, ” Ludwig said.
It should come as no surprise that a German won, and it should also come as no surprise that this was Ludwig’s turn. There have been 16 Olympic men’s luge races, with 11 of them won by a German. Ludwig won bronze in Pyeongchang four years ago, and he made it clear that he would be the one to beat in Beijing when he arrived in China for the season-opening World Cup race and simply routed the field.
Post Your Comments