Winter Olympics 2022 - German great Natalie Geisenberger equals luge singles gold medal record

Germany's Natalie Geisenberger became the first woman to win three Olympic luge singles titles with a straight-forward victory in Beijing. Widely accepted as the greatest luger of all time, she equalled the singles record set by Georg Hackl on the men's side and also secured her fifth gold medal.

Ad/> Geisenberger won by a margin of 0.493 over her fellow German Anita Berreiter and it could be one of her most significant, having returned to the sport in 2020 after taking the whole of the previous season off to have her son, Leo. Beijing 2022Luge at the Beijing Olympics: What are the rules? How do you win gold?17/12/2021 AT 14:20 The nine-time world champion went into day two already boosted by her biggest rival for gold, world champion Julia Taubitz, crashing during her second run, which allowed her to take a 0.208 lead ahead of Berreiter.

The 34-year-old got the penultimate run underway in style, hurtling down in a new track record of 58.266 to increase her advantage over Berreiter to 0.330, meaning only a huge error would deny her another Olympic title. For the final run, the order was reversed — with Geisenberger to go last to add to the tension.

But with Berreiter half a second ahead of third place, the only place which looked uncertain was bronze, with Russian Tatyana Ivanova holding a slender advantage over Hannah Prock from Austria. Germany's Ludwig races to inspired gold with winning luge run Beijing 2022 Olympic Games: Schedule, big names, key events and more Taubitz signed off with a quick final run down the course, knowing that a similar run in her failed second attempt would have put her in serious title contention.