Singles, Women

Totally dominant at the 2002 Winter Games the German women’s luge had actually improved their results in the four years since Salt Lake City. Not only had German sliders swept the podium at every World and European Championship but had also won every single round of the World Cup and unfailingly produced the top three in the World Cup standings. Anything other than a German 1-2-3 at Cesena Pariol would have been considered a shock of monumental proportions.

Reigning World and Olympic champion Sylke Otto set the best times of day one and led at the halfway stage with Silke Kraushaar comfortably in second place, but some way behind the leader. The one surprise was American Courteney Zablocki, who matched the times of the third German Tatjana Hüfner. When Hufner pulled away from Zablocki after the third run the medal positions were effectively confirmed and the inevitable German sweep did in fact happen. Otto became only the second woman in the history of Olympic luge to retain her title whilst Kraushaar’s silver was added to a gold and bronze for previous Games. The track proved a challenge for the participants and six of the 30 sliders crashed out of the competition. Canadian Meaghan Simister was taken from the track in an ambulance after crashing during her third run. A crash also put paid to the Olympic career of 52-year-old Anne Abernathy of the US Virgin Islands. “Grandma Luge”, as she became called, crashed during a training run and was forced to withdraw suffering from a broken wrist. As the only entrant from her country in 2006 this meant the US Virgin Islands did not compete in Torino.