SPORT PROFILE: Men's Single and Double Luge

About the sport of Luge in Canada

Olympic Luge History

Competitive luge racing began in Switzerland in the late 1800s but it would be another 60 years before Canadian competitors took up the sport. It wasn't until the late 1950s that bobsledder Vic Emery introduced the sport to Canadians at a ski area in Quebec. Emery, who would go on to win Canada's only Olympic bobsleigh medal to date at the 1964 Winter Games in Innsbruck, Austria, was also the first Canadian Luge champion.

Despite a long history and well established competitions in Switzerland, Germany and
Austria, luge did not appear at the Olympic Games until 1964. Until then, most luge
competitions took place on iced alpine roads and sometimes on 'tracks' with banked side walls. The traditional form of the sport evolved into the two disciplines of Olympic luge and Natural luge.

Olympic Games

Entry into the Olympics marked the beginning of a new era in the development of the
sport as racing switched to artificial ice tracks with steeply-banked curves. From the outset, European countries have dominated the sport. All Olympic medals from 1964
until 2002 have been won by four countries: Germany, Austria, Italy and the former
USSR. In recent years, however, other nations have been making inroads, most
noticeably the United States which holds Olympic medals in the doubles competition
at the 2002 Winter Games.

The rules are simple in luge. The course is timed, and the luger must depart from the start handles within a certain time once the track is declared clear.

The luger or pilot is required to arrive at the finish with the sled and in sliding position, athletes may no longer push their sleds across the finish line. Failure to do so results in automatic disqualification. However, lugers are permitted to stop during a run and continue their descent after repositioning the sled on the track, but the luger will be disqualified if touched by the track crew or a fan while in the race.

There are weight restrictions on the sleds, as well as restrictions on the design and construction. The 'steels' (the metal blades on the bottom of the runners on which the sled slides) must be within a certain temperature range relative to the air temperature. There are also weight restrictions on the athletes, as well as many other restrictions related to equipment including speedsuits, boots, helmets, gloves, spikes, etc.

Like other timed sports, qualifying determines start position, important during deteriorating track conditions. During World Cup and World Championship events, two runs determine the winners of the Men's Singles, Women's Singles, and Doubles events. At the Winter Olympics, Men and Women Single event are timed over four runs while the Doubles still do two runs. For the World Cup and World Championship Team Event, one run each is performed from the respective country's Doubles, Women's Singles, and Men's Singles with the combined time determining the winner. The Challenge Cup is a single round elimination event, similar to what you see in Drag Racing or Team pursuit track cycling where the sliders have a qualifying round to get bracketed, then run down the track in respective rounds (quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals) until a winner is determined.

Canadian Participation into 2010 and beyond...

Canada did not participate in the inaugural Olympic competition of 1964, but made its
debut four years later at the 1968 Winter Games in Grenoble, France, posting a team
high 31st in men's competition and 12th in the women's event. Since then, the Canadian competitors have gained a lot of ground in international competition Canada's best Olympic results are Marie Claude Doyon's 7th place finish in the women's event at the Calgary Games in 1988, Bruce Smith's and Kyle Connelly’s11th place finishes in men's singles at Lake Placid in 1980 and Salt Lake City respectively and a fifth place in doubles posted by Chris Moffat and Eric Pothier at Salt Lake City in 2002.

The sport of Luge has seen a rapid increase in popularity since the 1988 Olympic Games staged in Calgary. The awarding of the 2010 Olympic Games to Vancouver has reignited the passion of Canadians in winter sports and luge is already seeing greater participation by young Canadians. Ever increasing media coverage has been a direct result of world class results our Junior and Senior team athletes have achieved since 1988. For the first time ever in the sport of luge, Canada is standing on the podium.

Text courtesy of Luge Canada.

The winningest male lugers in the sport's history are Italy's Armin Zoeggeler, Germany's Georg Hackl and Austria's Markus Prock. Armin was always the nicest one to look at, and is the only one of the three that is still actively competing.