Wolfgang Kindl's dream of three Olympic medals
Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026
Innsbruck (FIL/28 Jan 2026) Wolfgang Kindl has achieved his big goal. The 1.66-meter-tall luger from Innsbruck has qualified for the 2026 Olympic Games in Milano Cortina. In his fifth appearance, the 37-year-old could also make history in the new Cortina Sliding Centre. “I want to come home with medals – in the singles and doubles,” he says, describing his ambitions. He could even win a medal in the relay. No luger has ever won three medals at the same Olympic Games.
The fact that he qualified in the strong Austrian team is an achievement that cannot be overestimated. “It's brutally difficult to qualify in our team,” explains Kindl, “in every discipline, someone who is world class has to watch from the sidelines.” In the singles, four athletes competed for three starting places: David and Nico Gleischer, Jonas Müller, and Kindl. In the doubles, Juri Gatt and Riccardo Schöpf as well as Yannick Müller and Armin Frauscher wanted to challenge the duo Thomas Steu/Wolfgang Kindl for a starting place. Now 2018 Olympic champion David Gleirscher and the duo Müller/Frauscher will have to watch from the sidelines.
Kindl's extensive experience was a big advantage in this situation. He made his World Cup debut 20 years ago. In 2017, he experienced the highlight of his career so far at the World Championships in his home track of Igls, winning the title in both the singles and the sprint. He finished second three times and third twice in the overall World Cup. At the Games in Beijing four years ago, he won silver in the singles and with the team in the relay. But he also had to deal with setbacks time and again. He admits quite honestly that he made a few mistakes when it came to building his sled. “I got a little too caught up in the material,” he explains, “I kept trying new things that didn't work out.” On top of that, he contracted Pfeiffer's glandular fever in the summer of 2024, which didn't help his preparations either.
Wolfgang Kindl considers the decision to compete in doubles as well as in singles to be very important. What started out as a joke quickly became a reality. Two years ago, Thomas Steu was looking for a new partner after his underman Lorenz Koller retired. On a whim, Kindl said, “I'll sit in the back, it'll work out.” It worked. “After that, we thought about it seriously and analyzed how we could make it work.”
The first basic requirement was that the sled had to be completely rebuilt. After all, Kindl is ten centimeters shorter than Lorenz Koller. Compromises also had to be made in training, as Kindl had to race in the singles as well as the doubles. “Thomas played along very well,” says Kindl, praising his coxswain. Steu also does most of the hard work when it comes to preparing the sled. But the two work together perfectly. And they are also successful. Although not always as successful as last winter in Pyeongchang, when Kindl triumphed in the doubles race and then in the singles race within two hours. In the final standings, Kindl finished fifth in the singles and third in the doubles with Steu.
On the one hand, Wolfgang Kindl, as an intuitive driver, can take his experience from the singles into the doubles. “In the doubles, you can also feel when you need to steer.” On the other hand, he benefits from the doubles for the singles. "Because I've always had my head very far back, I relied very little on visual signals and drove by feeling. I think I was able to expand on that a little more in the doubles and transfer it to the single."
Kindl proved his mastery of the Olympic track in Cortina in the fall with third place in the singles and fourth place in the doubles. Even then, the double start at the Olympic Games in Cortina was a step closer.
