Ludwig pulls out the stops to capture luge gold at Beijing Olympics

YANQING, China:: Germany’s Johannes Ludwig said he was happy to put on a show to secure Olympic gold in the men’s luge on Sunday after holding off a challenge from Austria’s Wolfgang Kindl. “There was always a small gap between Wolfgang and me, so I said to myself before the last two rounds, ‘let’s make a game of it, it’s the Olympic Games’,” said Ludwig. “I hoped to make a bit of a show for the people here to watch, that was important for me,” he said, even though his victory was only cheered by a small crowd of athletes and coaches at the Yanqing Sliding Center — tickets were not sold to the public because of coronavirus fears.

Clocking speeds of 133 kilometers (83 miles) per hour, Ludwig took gold with a winning combined time of three minutes, 48.735 seconds, finishing just 0.160sec ahead of silver medallist Kindl. Italy’s Dominik Fischnaller won bronze, 0.951sec back. It was a first individual gold for Ludwig having won singles bronze and team relay gold four years ago in Pyeongchang.

He turns 36 in a week’s time and admitted this may be his last Olympics. “I had a lot of years when I didn’t qualify for the Olympics — in 2010, 2014 — and was often one step off the podium at the world champs, but I kept going so I am happy to have done this,” he added. Ludwig, this winter’s overall World Cup winner, had roared into the lead with a new track record in Saturday’s opening heat.

However, he led overnight by just 0.039 of a second after Kindl, crowned European champion a fortnight ago, was fastest in the second heat. The German lowered the track record for the second time in 24 hours in Sunday’s third heat, then clinched victory with an impressive fourth run. Despite just missing out on gold, Kindl was happy with his