Salt Lake City. The three-time World Champion Armin Zöggeler has won the gold medal at the men’s singles luge competitions of the XIX. Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City. Cheered at by 14,000 excited spectators, the biggest crowd the luge sport has ever seen, Zoeggeler from South Tyrol in Italy captured the gold medal in a total time of 2:57,941 minutes.

The silver medal went to the German Georg Hackl (2:58,270), making him the first winter sports athlete in Olympic history to ever have won five consecutive Olympic medals. His collection of Olympic medals also includes three gold medals for his victories in 1992, 1994 and 1998, as well as a silver medal from the 1988 Games in Calgary. After winning the event’s bronze medal, Austria’s 38 year-old Markus Prock (2:58,283) is now going to say goodbye to the sport of luge. Prock had captured silver at the 1992 and 1994 Olympic Winter Games.

The artificial luge track at Utah Olympic Park was the venue of one of the most exciting luge races in the past few years. In three out of four runs Armin Zöggeler set up a new track record, which was broken by Georg Hackl once and finally also by Markus Prock (44,271). With Adam Heidt (2:58,606) from the USA and Russia’s Albert Demtschenko (2:58,996) on ranks four and five, the top five ranks were taken by five different nations.

Jacques Rogge, President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was thrilled watching the event and the first one to congratulate Hackl.