Luge at the 2022 Winter Olympics – Doubles

The doubles competition in luge at the 2022 Winter Olympics was held on 9 February, at the Xiaohaituo Bobsleigh and Luge Track in Yanqing District.[1] Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt of Germany, the 2014 and 2018 champions, won the event again. The 2018 bronze medalists, Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken, won the silver medal. Thomas Steu and Lorenz Koller of Austria won the bronze, their first medal.

Luge doubles
at the XXIV Olympic Winter Games
Luge pictogram
VenueXiaohaituo Bobsleigh and Luge Track
Date9 February
Competitors34 from 14 nations
Teams17
Winning time1:56.554
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s)Tobias Wendl
Tobias Arlt
 Germany
2nd place, silver medalist(s)Toni Eggert
Sascha Benecken
 Germany
3rd place, bronze medalist(s)Thomas Steu
Lorenz Koller
 Austria
← 2018
2026 →

The 2018 silver medalists, Peter Penz and Georg Fischler, retired from competitions. Eggert and Benneken were leading the 2021–22 Luge World Cup before the Olympics, with Wendl and Arlt second. The two pairs were considered to be the prime gold contenders.[2] Andris Šics and Juris Šics, the bronze medalists of the 2014 Olympics, were consistent though the 2021/2022 season and were standing third in the World Cup before the Olympics. In the race, they finished fifth.

Qualification

The qualification is based on the cumulative points of the Olympic Season from 1 July 2021 to January 10, 2022. A total of 36 (18 pairs) quota spots are available to athletes to compete at the games. Each NOC can enter a maximum of three athletes.

In the doubles, all nations with a pair in the top 25 qualified one slot. If there were remaining spots left, the second best sled of each nation in the top 28 was awarded an additional quota, if there were any remaining spots.

On December 17, 2021, the International Luge Federation announced that the qualification system was changed. The qualification system was changed due to training runs being cancelled at the first World Cup, and equipment not being delivered to the following World Cups. The new system saw athletes qualify based on their top four results during the World Cup season, (as opposed to the previous all seven results counting).[3]

On January 19, 2022, the International Luge Federation announced the list of qualified athletes.[4]

Summary

Number of sledsAthletes totalNation
216  Germany
 Latvia
 Austria
 ROC
120  Italy
 Poland
 Canada
 United States
 South Korea
 Slovakia
 Ukraine
 Romania
 Czech Republic
 China[a]
1836

Results

The second qualified sled from Austria did not start.

RankBibAthleteCountryRun 1RankRun 2RankTotal[5]Behind
5Tobias Wendl
Tobias Arlt
 Germany58.255 TR158.29911:56.554
2Toni Eggert
Sascha Benecken
 Germany58.300258.35321:56.653+0.099
11Thomas Steu
Lorenz Koller
 Austria58.426358.63931:57.065+0.511
43Mārtiņš Bots
Roberts Plūme
 Latvia58.628558.79151:57.419+0.865
51Andris Šics
Juris Šics
 Latvia58.703658.73441:57.437+0.883
64Emanuel Rieder
Simon Kainzwaldner
 Italy58.602458.99571:57.597+1.043
710Tristan Walker
Justin Snith
 Canada58.895759.02381:57.918+1.364
88Alexander Denisyev
Vladislav Antonov
 ROC59.040958.95361:57.993+1.439
97Wojciech Chmielewski
Jakub Kowalewski
 Poland58.992859.07391:58.065+1.511
106Andrei Bogdanov
Yuri Prokhorov
 ROC59.3761159.132111:58.508+1.954
1115Zack DiGregorio
Sean Hollander
 United States59.3891259.126101:58.515+1.961
1212Park Jin-yong
Cho Jung-myung
 South Korea59.3611059.366121:58.727+2.173
139Tomáš Vaverčák
Matej Zmij
 Slovakia1:00.1381559.704131:59.842+3.288
1413Vasile Gîtlan
Darius Şerban
 Romania59.694131:00.243161:59.937+3.383
1514Ihor Stakhiv
Andrii Lysetskyi
 Ukraine59.983141:00.080152:00.063+3.509
1617Filip Vejdělek
Zdeněk Pěkný
 Czech Republic1:00.2481659.869142:00.117+3.563
1716Huang Yebo
Peng Junyue
 China1:00.732171:00.840172:01.572+5.018

References