Medals update: Germany’s Johannes Ludwig wins singles luge gold at Beijing 2022

The 35-year-old Johannes Ludwig’s gold adds to the bronze from four years ago, with Austrian slider Wolfgang Kindl finishing second and Italy’s Dominik Fischnaller third.

3 min
Johannes Ludwig led throughout the entire men's singles luge event in Beijing 2022

(Adam Pretty/Getty Images)

German veteran Johannes Ludwig capped a dream season, winning his first Olympic singles luge gold medal in Beijing 2022 at the Yanqing National Sliding Centre on Sunday (6 February).

The gold was Ludwig’s to lose as the last man to barrel down the icy chute after setting track records on two of his previous three runs. He set a combined winning time of 3:48.735, highlighting his dominance over two days on the ice.

Ludwig went into the final run with a 0.113s advantage over Kindl in second place and nearly a second on Fischnaller. He again clocked the fastest time on the last run to claim the victory, with Kindl finishing second, 0.160s adrift, with Fischnaller rounding off the podium with 3:49.686.

Ludwig finally got his hands on the gold medal, upgrading the bronze he won in his Winter Olympic debut in PyeongChang 2018. He also won gold in the team competition four years ago.

“This gold medal means a lot to me. I have a lot of years in this sport behind me and I had a lot of not so successful years," Ludwig said.

"In 2010 (Vancouver) and 2014 (Sochi) I didn’t qualify for the Olympics. I had a lot of fourth places in world championships, I think nearly five. There was a lot of times only near the podium. It’s one thing that I always keep continuing luging, and I’m happy that I did it. I think this medal is a sign that I did the right thing.”

Finding the breakthrough

Kindl, who has also been Ludwig’s closest rival during the World Cup season, had one last chance to upset the form book but had to produce a record-breaking run to do so. Ludwig highlighted his class on his final slide to the bottom, again posting the fastest time to make it three out of four.

“I have to say I was very relaxed before this race. I always knew that I have very good performances here. When I was awake this morning I had my seven hours of sleep and that was good for me. I was just wondering, is it the right thing that I am so relaxed today? I was a little bit worried about it," Ludwig said about the pressure of coming into Beijing as gold-medal favourite.

“Some hours before the race I was a little bit more excited, but I have to say this is OK. It’s always the right level of my nerves. I said to myself it’s called the Olympic Games. I said I will try to see it like a game and I just want to let it go, and I think this was a key point of this success.”

Reaching the podium were major milestones for both Kindl and Fischnaller after years of falling painstakingly short.

Fischnaller missed out on a medal by 0.002s in PyeongChang 2018, while Kindl finished ninth on all three previous appearances at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver 2010, Sochi 2014 and PyeongChang 2018. Double Olympic champion Felix Loch of Germany narrowly missed out on another podium place and had to be content with fourth place finishing 0.192s behind Fischnaller.

Results – men’s singles luge

1 Johannes Ludwig (GER) 3:48.735

2 Wolfgang Kindl (AUT) 3:48.895

3 Dominik Fischnaller (ITA) 3:49.686

More from