Sochi (pps) At the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia, the International Luge Federation (FIL) has two reasons to celebrate: It is not only the “50th Anniversary of Luge at Olympic Games” but also the première of a fourth discipline as the innovative FIL Team Relay event will make its debut on the Olympic stage. By now, luge is one of the key sports of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Italy’s Armin Zoeggeler has the chance to set a unique Olympic record on the artificially refrigerated track in Krasnaya Polyana, about 45 kilometers away from the metropolis on the Black Sea coast. The record World Champion (six titles) might become the first winter sports athlete to claim his sixth successive Olympic medal. During his career Zoeggeler has collected two Olympic gold, one silver and two bronze medals.

Only Germany’s Georg Hackl was more successful at the Olympic Games as he claimed five medals at six starts. “My two silver medals create a nice frame for the three in gold,” Hackl describes his medal collection (silver in 1988 – three gold in 1992, 1994 and 1998 – silver in 2002). Only at the 2006 Games in Turin, his last Olympic start, he went away without a medal.
Steffi Martin-Walter of the former GDR and Sylke Otto (Germany) are tied for the unofficial title of “most successful female Olympic luger”. Martin-Walter won gold in Sarajevo (1984) and Calgary (1988) while Otto earned the Olympic titles in Salt Lake City (2002) and Turin (2006). Should Tatjana Huefner (GER) repeat her Olympic victory of Vancouver (2002), the 30-year-old will become the most successful female luge at the Olympic Games as she also earned a bronze medal in 2006.

The Olympic record champions in the doubles event are winners Stefan Krausse-Jan Behrendt (GER). Between 1988 and 1998 they collected two gold medals (1992, 1998) as well as one silver (1988) and one bronze medal (1994) each.

Luge has been part of the Olympic program since the 1964 Winter Games when the winners in Innsbruck were Thomas Koehler and Ortrun Enderlein of the then all-German team and Josef Feistmantl-Manfred Stengl of Austria. Sochi will mark the 14th time that Olympic medals will be awarded in the women’s and men’s singles and the doubles event. And, for the first time, in the Team Relay.