Ludwig Leads After Two Runs in Beijing Olympics

From Beijing, CHN

(February 5, 2022) – Johannes Ludwig has been the class of the field throughout the 2021/2022 men’s luge season, and in the first two runs of the Olympic Games the German showed the 2018 Olympic bronze medalist wasn’t about to back down in Yanqing.

Ludwig, who won the season opening test event on the Olympic track, held off Austria’s Wolfgang Kindl across two runs to carry a .039 lead overnight into the third run. In the first run Ludwig set both the start and track record, and while he was out-slid by Kindl in the second run it wasn’t enough to fall out of the top spot.

“It was a very good start for me,” Ludwig said of his first two runs. “No major mistakes just some smaller mistakes, good start.” He continued, “Tomorrow is a new day.”

Kindl, who was the quick slider throughout official training, will spend Saturday night in second place. His second run was the quickest of the second heat and enough to cut into Ludwig’s slim lead.

Italy’s Dominik Fischnaller, who’d been the quickest of his training group early in official training, had the third quickest run in both heats to end the day in third, just over .3 back.

Felix Loch, winner of the 2010 and 2014 Olympic gold medals, moved up from fifth in his first run to finish the day in fourth place, just ahead of Latvia’s Kristers Aparjods in fifth. Aparjods’s teammate, Gints Berzins, is sixth.

The entire 2018 Olympic podium are in the top ten after two runs. Gold medalist David Gleirscher fell from sixth in the first heat to eighth, one spot ahead of silver medalist Chris Mazdzer of the United States.

“I’m okay with them,” Mazdzer said of his two runs to start the Olympics. “I had a really bad crash yesterday at the bottom and I think that kind of affected my mindset. But overall I’m pretty happy!”

The United States put all three of their men in the top 20. Tucker West overcame a mistake in his first run that left him 15th to move up the leaderboard and finish his day in 11th place, only .09 out of the top ten. Teammate Jonny Gustafson had the quick start of the second run but a mistake just above the kreisel left him in 18th.

Canada’s Reid Watts will enter the third run of competition in 17th place, while Australia’s Alexander Ferlazzo will be in 19th place.

Great Britain’s Rupert Staudinger ended the second run in 24th place, .395 out of the top 20 but well ahead of his 2018 finish of 33rd.

Kevin Fischnaller did not start due to a positive COVID test earlier in the week.

Results After Run 2