Salt Lake City. Georg Hackl has already made Olympic history, but at the Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City he has the chance to make the list of his merits even longer. „I think I have already contributed my part to Olympic history and achieved more than I ever expected in my life as an athlete“, says Hackl.

But: If the athlete from Berchtesgaden in Germany should win the gold medal in men’s singles luge for the fourth time, he would be the first winter sports athlete to ever have realized this extraordinary proof of continuity. Even if „Hackl Schorsch“ could only win silver or bronze, this would be a unique Olympic success. Never before has an athlete won a medal at five consecutive Winter Games. Prior to his three gold medals (1992, 1994 and 1998) Hackl had won an Olympic silver medal in Calgary/Canada in 1988.

At the extremely fast track at Utah Olympic Park, Hackl will race with a sled that has been constructed especially for this ice track. The new sled, which is supposed to cope with the narrow curves 1a, 1b and 1c as well as the high speed sections in a best possible way, was built in cooperation with engineers of the sports car manufacturer Porsche. „Not even the federal coach knows the specifics or details of this sled“, says Hackl. However, the 35-year old Hackl does not consider himself as a favorite for the Games. „That’s Armin Zoeggeler. He fulfills all prerequisites for a success at this track.“

While Hackl achieved four victories in the 2001/2002 Viessmann World Cup series (Calgary, Königssee, Igls, Winterberg), Italy’s World Champion won only one single time: And this was in Lake Placid – when the German A-team was missing due to an internal Olympic qualification race, which took place in La Plagne at the same time. Four years ago in Nagano, Zoeggeler won the Olympic silver medal.

No doubt, the Austrian Markus Prock is another possible medalist. Prock won a World Cup race for the first time in three years in Sigulda, became European Champion on his favorite track in Altenberg for the third time after 1994 and 1998, and finally won the overall standings of the Viessmann World Cup series for the tenth time in his career. „It will be extremely difficult to win a medal“, says Prock, who came in second after Hackl at the 1992 and 1994 Olympic Winter Games. „The German dominance is very strong.“

Prock was alluding to the victory of the German Karsten Albert at the Viessmann World Cup in Oberhof and the second rank of Denis Geppert at the European Championships in Altenberg. Besides these two Germans, Tony Benshoof from the USA can also be considered one of the favorites; at the World Cup finals in Winterberg, Benshoof surprisingly finished second, which was his career’s high. The Frenchman Johan Rousseau is also considered to have chances as an outsider, who finished third at the Olympic test a year ago.