In women's luge, the Olympic race is for 2nd place
KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia (AP) — The race is for second.
That's how good Germany's Natalie Geisenberger was in the opening two runs of the Olympic women's luge competition, which ends Tuesday night with the final two trips down the track at the Sanki Sliding Center.
She was perfect. And no one else had a chance.
Geisenberger leads by the enormous-for-luge margin of more than three-quarters of a second going into the final two runs, after finishing her first two trips in 1 minute, 39.814 seconds. Tatjana Huefner, Geisenberger's countrywoman and the 2010 Olympic champion, is 0.766 seconds back. And in third is Erin Hamlin of Remsen, N.Y., the 2009 world champion who is now in position to give the U.S. its first singles luge medal in Olympic history.
Gold will be Geisenberger's, barring some unfortunate occurrence.
History says it's over.
In each of the last three Olympics, and in eight of the previous 13 that included luge on the program, the 1-2-3 order at the midway point wound up being the 1-2-3 order when the competition was complete.
That's a golden sign for Geisenberger, and a great sign for Hamlin.
She's acutely aware of how the U.S. has been fourth in singles races at the Olympics three times, often much worse, never any better.
Come Tuesday night, she can change that.
"Oh my God," Hamlin's teammate, Summer Britcher of Glen Rock, Pa., said, throwing back her head and looking at the Russian sky. "After the first run, I didn't realize she was in second and I saw the results and I was like, 'She didn't tell me that,' and I was so excited. If she can get a medal it would be amazing."
Here's five things to watch Tuesday night when the competition concludes:
TOUGH TO RALLY: In 12 of the 13 previous Olympic women's luge competitions, the eventual champion has either been first (10 times) or second (twice) at the midway point of the competition. The only time the gold medalist emerged from in the pack to win was 1976, when Margit Schumann was fifth after two runs — though she was less than a tenth of a second off the lead.
GERMAN DOMINANCE: If Geisenberger and Huefner finish in the top two spots, it'll be the ninth time at 14 Olympics that German women (though sometimes women from what was East Germany and West Germany) took both gold and silver in the luge competition.
SUMMER'S WINTER: Once she gripped the handle bars at the start and felt the tingle in her arms, it hit American Summer Britcher. She was in the Olympics. The 19-year-old Britcher is in 15th place after the first two runs, but her beaming smile gave her the look of a champion. "It's the Olympics," she said. "Of course I'm happy." Despite a few problems, Britcher was pleased with her performance, saying she had her best runs of the week.
GREAT UNCLE: A night after watching her famous uncle win his record sixth Olympic medal, Italy's Sandra Robatscher had her own moment inside the rings. The niece of luge legend Armin Zoeggeler, made her Olympic debut. She's 23rd with two runs left. "I'm very happy for him," Robatscher said of Zoeggeler, who passed Germany's Georg Hackl for the most medals in history. "He's a great luger. I love him."
BUNCHED PACK: The top three spots were separated by 0.818 seconds. The sliders in places 4-12 were separated by 0.872 seconds.
