Salt Lake City. The two-time World Champions Patric Leitner/Alexander Resch have captured the gold medal at the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City. At the artificial bobsleigh and luge track at Utah Olympic Park, the overall winners of the Viessmann luge World Cup series fulfilled their big dream and became Olympic champions after two runs. Leitner/Resch (Germany) won in a total time of 1:26.082 minutes ahead of the US doubles team Mark Grimmette/Brian Martin on rank two (1:26.216) and Chris Thorpe/Clay Ives on rank three (also USA, 1:26.220). Four years ago in Nagano, Chris Thorpe, at that time together with Gordy Sheer, had won the silver medal and first medal ever for the US Luge Federation. Grimmette/Martin had been Nagano bronze medallists. More than 14,000 spectators had come to Utah Olympic Park and celebrated the US medallists with an excitement and enthusiasm one has seldom seen at any luge track.

With a thrilling first run Leitner/Resch took a first big step towards the gold medal. Despite a serious mistake in the lower part of the track, which Patric Leitner corrected in an almost artistic way, the team set up a new track record of 42.953 seconds. Before, Steffen Skel/Steffen Woeller (43.121) and Thorpe/Ives (43.111) had already broken the old track record also held by Leitner/Resch (43.138). This track record had been set up by Leitner/Resch during the Olympic test at the end of last year.

After a crash during the first run at the exit of curve 14, Italy’s Christian Oberstolz/Patrick Gruber, finished with a time of 45.882 and gave away all chances for a possible medal rank.