Singles, Women
| Date | 10 – 11 February 1998 | |
|---|---|---|
| Status | Olympic | |
| Location | The Spiral, Asakawa, Nagano | |
| Participants | 29 from 15 countries | |
| Format | Four runs, total time determined placement. | |
| Details | Curves: 13 Length: 1194 m Start Altitude: 1011 m Vertical Drop: 96 m | |
In the four years since Gerda Weissensteiner had won the Olympic title in Lillehammer the balance of power in the women’s luge had shifted towards Germany. The German team were so strong in 1998 that two of the world’s best lugers, Jana Bode and Sylke Otto, could not find places on the Olympic roster and it was no surprise that the gold medal was decided between two Germans. Silke Kraushaar and Barbara Niedernhuber fought a desperately close duel which inevitably was decided only by the final run of the whole event. When Niederhuber crossed the finish line the clock showed she had missed by 0.002 seconds which is the equivalent of only a few millimetres when spread out over the four runs. Austria’s Angelika Neuner spoiled a possible German sweep of the podium when she placed ahead of Suzi Erdmann.
| Pos | Competitor | NOC | Time | Run #1 | Run #2 | Run #3 | Run #4 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Silke Kraushaar |  GER | 3:23.779 | 51.197 (1) | 51.178 (2) | 50.787 (1) | 50.617 (2) | Gold | ||
| 2 | Barbara Niedernhuber | GER | 3:23.781 | 51.216 (2) | 51.103 (1) | 50.837 (2) | 50.625 (3) | Silver | ||
| 3 | Angelika Neuner |  AUT | 3:24.253 | 51.417 (3) | 51.286 (3) | 50.945 (4) | 50.605 (1) | Bronze | ||
| 4 | Susi Erdmann | GER | 3:24.449 | 51.475 (4) | 51.348 (5) | 50.895 (3) | 50.731 (5) | |||
| 5 | Andrea Tagwerker | AUT | 3:24.491 | 51.518 (5) | 51.335 (4) | 50.990 (5) | 50.648 (4) | |||
| 6 | Erin Warren |  USA | 3:25.328 | 51.644 (6) | 51.461 (6) | 51.364 (8) | 50.859 (7) | |||
| 7 | Cammy Myler | USA | 3:25.475 | 51.795 (9) | 51.654 (8) | 51.219 (6) | 50.807 (6) | |||
| 8 | Bethany Calcaterra-McMahon | USA | 3:25.558 | 51.696 (7) | 51.651 (7) | 51.296 (7) | 50.915 (8) | |||
| 9 | Gerda Weissensteiner |  ITA | 3:26.113 | 51.744 (8) | 51.998 (13) | 51.415 (10) | 50.956 (9) | |||
| 10 | Sonja Manzenreiter | AUT | 3:26.272 | 51.892 (10) | 51.828 (11) | 51.369 (9) | 51.183 (10) | |||
| 11 | Nataliya Yakushenko |  UKR | 3:26.548 | 52.014 (13) | 51.746 (9) | 51.511 (11) | 51.277 (12) | |||
| 12 | Natalie Obkircher | ITA | 3:26.677 | 51.910 (11) | 51.967 (12) | 51.530 (13) | 51.270 (11) | |||
| 13 | Anna Orlova |  LAT | 3:26.963 | 52.199 (16) | 51.772 (10) | 51.642 (16) | 51.350 (16) | |||
| 14 | Iluta Gaile | LAT | 3:26.981 | 52.157 (14) | 52.016 (14) | 51.516 (12) | 51.292 (13) | |||
| 15 | Mária Jasenčáková |  SVK | 3:27.365 | 52.006 (12) | 52.336 (20) | 51.721 (17) | 51.302 (14) | |||
| 16 | Liliya Ludan | UKR | 3:27.711 | 52.213 (17) | 52.087 (15) | 51.815 (19) | 51.596 (19) | |||
| 17 | Margarita Klimenko |  RUS | 3:27.751 | 52.391 (19) | 52.123 (17) | 51.789 (18) | 51.448 (17) | |||
| 18 | Irina Gubkina | RUS | 3:28.115 | 52.295 (18) | 52.199 (18) | 52.107 (21) | 51.514 (18) | |||
| 19 | Angie Paul |  NZL | 3:28.466 | 52.534 (20) | 52.254 (19) | 51.870 (20) | 51.808 (22) | |||
| 20 | Helen Novikov |  EST | 3:29.263 | 52.760 (21) | 52.594 (21) | 52.204 (23) | 51.705 (20) | |||
| 21 | Eriko Yamada |  JPN | 3:29.423 | 53.494 (26) | 53.015 (25) | 51.595 (14) | 51.319 (15) | |||
| 22 | Jurita Šnitko | LAT | 3:29.707 | 52.921 (24) | 52.638 (22) | 52.347 (25) | 51.801 (21) | |||
| 23 | Shino Yanagisawa | JPN | 3:29.834 | 52.762 (22) | 52.706 (24) | 52.243 (24) | 52.123 (23) | |||
| 24 | Anne Abernathy |  ISV | 3:30.707 | 53.224 (25) | 52.652 (23) | 52.525 (26) | 52.306 (24) | |||
| 25 | Yumie Kobayashi | JPN | 3:30.770 | 52.829 (23) | 53.025 (26) | 52.198 (22) | 52.718 (26) | |||
| 26 | Doris Preindl | ITA | 3:31.296 | 52.178 (15) | 52.107 (16) | 51.638 (15) | 55.373 (28) | |||
| 27 | Corina Drăgan |  ROU | 3:32.238 | 53.653 (27) | 53.329 (27) | 52.714 (27) | 52.542 (25) | |||
| 28 | Iginia Boccalandro |  VEN | 3:39.317 | 54.232 (28) | 53.962 (28) | 54.133 (28) | 56.990 (29) | |||
| 29 | Lee Yi-Fang |  TPE | 3:40.034 | 55.052 (29) | 55.217 (29) | 56.648 (29) | 53.117 (27) |