Exciting luge competitions on the second day of the Winter Youth Olympic Games Gangwon 2024
Italy triumphs with two gold medals!
Gangwon (FIL/21 Jan 2024) In Gangwon 2024, the luge competitions of the Youth Olympic Winter Games (YOG) became an impressive showcase for young talents from all over the world. On the second day of racing, Sunday, January 21, the men's single and women's doubles competitions took place.
The young luge athletes from Italy showed their dominance by triumphing in both the men's singles and women's doubles.
Haselrieder triumphs in the singles
Leon Haselrieder led the way. The 16-year-old South Tyrolean impressed with precise runs and secured the gold medal in the men's single with a total time of 1:32.356 minutes. Haselrieder's team-mate Philipp Brunner, who had won gold in the doubles together with Manuel Weißensteiner the day before, took the bronze medal (0.886 seconds behind). Silver went to Austria with Paul Socher. The 15-year-old finished 0.185 sec. behind - a good 18 hundredths of a second. The Tyrolean Socher shone with two best times at the start. He was even in the lead in the first run.
"I'm very happy and proud of my race today. Those were two very good runs. The time in the first run wasn't ideal. I was in second place and thought to myself that I wanted all or nothing. I knew that victory was possible, so I put all my eggs in one basket and took another real risk. It's great that the plan worked out. I'm super happy with the gold medal, that was my big goal!”
“My expectation was definitely a medal, but of course I was never sure that it would be enough for gold. I was a bit unsure after the first run, but I really wanted it. And now I'm over the moon that it was enough for gold," beamed Leon Haselrieder after the award ceremony with his gold medal. Leon's father Oswald Haselrieder had won bronze in the doubles together with Gerhard Plankensteiner at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin. His son therefore said: "I think I would be faster than my father by now and would win a duel against him in the track. My big goal would have been the Winter Olympics at home in Milan-Cortina, but they would have to build a track first. It's very sad!"
Women's doubles - Oberstolz takes her second medal
And she does it again. Alexandra Oberstolz from Italy won her second medal on the second day of the YOG - this time she and Katharine Kofler won the women's doubles gold. The two 16-year-old schoolgirls from South Tyrol dominated with two fastest run times to take victory in 1:36.471. Marie Riedl also repeated a medal from the previous day. After winning bronze in the singles, the 16-year-old from Götzens in Tyrol won the silver medal in the doubles together with 15-year-old Nina Lerch from the Tyrolean Olympic town of Igls (0.670 seconds behind). Their two 17-year-old sisters Lina Riedl and Anna Lerch took bronze, 0.907 seconds behind the winners. Riedl/Lerch thus won two medals for Austria in the doubles at the YOG. The younger sisters Marie and Nina took silver and the two older sisters Lina and Anna secured bronze.FIL Vice President for Sport Claire del Negro congratulated: "This is a great story with the two sister duos. Congratulations to both families from Austria! And of course my heartfelt congratulations to Italy!"
"I think this is very funny, with the two sister duos competing against each other. It's good that they're both flying home with a medal. That's nice for the families," said a beaming Alexandra Oberstolz. Her 16-year old partner Katharina Kofler said: "I didn't expect to win gold. I'm very happy that we can hold the gold medal of the Youth Olympic Games in our hands and represent our country so well. We already trained here in Korea last year and competed in a Continental Cup. In preparation, we did a lot of runs in doubles on other tracks. The preparation was very focused and the joy of winning is therefore all the greater now." Her luge partner Oberstolz disagreed: "I, on the other hand, expected that we would be able to win because we were able to impress and stand out with our runs in training. We already had some experience on this track last year. Unfortunately, the runs today weren't flawless, but it was still enough to take first place and that feels incredibly good."
The two-time Youth Olympic medal winner Oberstolz analyzes: "Today we had minor problems at the start. The last run in the race was probably the worst we've ever had on this track - apart from the very first run, probably. We hope that we can compete in the women's doubles at the big Olympic Games in Milano-Cortina. It would be a big dream of ours. The Youth Olympic Games are a great experience and it's incredible to go home with gold medals in singles and doubles."
The winter weather in South Korea presented itself with perfect conditions on the second day of racing. The volunteers at the Olympic track in Alpensia once again did a great job and the young lugers coped very well with the optimal racing conditions at -2 degrees Celsius.
Overall, the second race day of the luge competitions at the Winter Youth Olympic Games in Gangwon 2024 was a spectacular event that highlighted the world-class performances of the young female and male luge athletes and further fueled the enthusiasm for this fascinating winter sport.
Next Tuesday, January 22, the young lugers will compete for the medals in the team relay at the end of the luge events.
Ahead of the YOG Gangwon 2024 team relay, Italy clearly leads the medal table for lugers with three gold, one silver and one bronze medal. In second place is Germany (1-0-1), which remained without medals on the second day of the YOG. Austria (0-1-2) is in third place ahead of Latvia (0-1-0).
See full schedule of the YOG Gangwon 2024 here:https://olympics.com/en/gangwon-2024/schedule
Watch YOG live on IOC Olympic ChannelGangwon 2024 Olympic Videos - Highlights & Replays (olympics.com)
