Cesana Pariol, Italy. Continuation of German success in womens Luge racing. After 2002 Sylke Otto wins her second straight Olympic gold, Silke Kraushaar and Tatjana Hüfner finished second and third. Courtney Zablocki from the USA could not keep pace and ended up fourth.

IOC Vice President Dr. Thomas Bach had well planned his day at the Torino Olympic Games: Only a few hours after he had congratulated Sven Fischer to the Biathlon gold medal in San Sicario he experienced the triple of the German women at the Luge track in Cesana, just next to San Sicario.

Sylke Otto, 2002 Olympic Champion at Salt Lake City had already built the base to defend her title on the first day and proved that she intended to hold onto it on Tuesday. In the third run she smoked the track but raise the tension again in the ultimate run with playing it safe: After a sub-optimum start her margin went down to eight hundrets of a second until the last curve combination. However, she thrust her arms into the air long before the leader board was in her sight when the numerous, especially German fans along the track lifted their thumbs. With a total time of 3:07.979 Otto claimed the win and from now on is recognized the most successful female luge racer ever having two Olympic gold medals and four World Championship titles under her belt.
Silke Kraushaar, gold medalist at the 1998 Nagano Olympics and strongest rival of Otto, managed to shorten the gap to 13 hundrets of a second but could not reach for the gold anymore. With a total of 3:08.115 she finally claimed the silver and by this completed her medal collection in all three colors. The margin of Tatjana Hüfner over Courtney Zablocki from the United States had only been four thousends of a second after two runs. In the third run the German increased the pace to 13 hundrets of a second and extended it to a total of almost four tenths. Hüfner thus won the Olympic bronze and completed the German triple at her first participance in Olympic Games. Zablocki, after the crashes of Ukrainian Natalia Yakushenko and Anastasia Obertolz-Antonova from Italy on the first day the only serious medal contender left, finally ended up fourth but at least she remains the Worlds best non-German female Luge racer.

The Doubles competition, consisting of two runs, will conclude the Olympic Luge racing on Wednesday.

QUOTES

OTTO, Sylke (GER): I still cannot believe that everything is over now. The dream came true. Salt Lake was tough already but it is just incredible that I managed to make the very top again on this difficult track. The last run was far from perfect but as a luger you know that three and a half tenth have not melted entirely and when the crowd in the finish put the signs I knew that I made it. My future mother in law had handed me a horoscope for 2006 which she had cut from a German newspaper. It was written there that February 14th was my lucky day – incredible, what do you think? This was for sure my last Olympic race.

KRAUSHAAR, Silke (GER): I made it up from three tenth to eight hundrets of a second to Sylke and for sure had a little hope again. However, I doubted that she would let this go. If it had done better in the first run, I had every option but there was nothing else I could do. I am happy that I made it to the podium – this was my third participance, I claimed three medals and that is something to be proud of. This was definitely my last Olympic race but I did not think about how I will go on. It is hardly possible that I stop racing entirely now.

HUEFNER, Tatjana (GER): This is giant, a bronze medal at my first Olympics, whereas a dream came true already with my participation... You try to believe that this is a race like any other but as a matter of fact it really is something special. Prior to the last run I was very nervous but I tried to ignore everything around me – all the cameras, the people yelling along the track – and to get the run down in the best possible way. It worked well then and when I got to the finish I was sure I made it.

ZABLOCKI, Courtney (USA): I am happy about my results although it is also a bit disappointing – I have put in everything to reach for a medal. It almost hurts to be that close and let it go then. I do not know how to beat those Germans. The two Silkes have been successful for such a long time now and if they retire there are a lot of young women taking their space. We will not give in, maybe some time we will manage to beat them – you never know. There are a few already who are able to be close.

Photo (c) Nancie Battaglia