High-speed heroics

World's elite lugers all set to serve up lightning-fast feast

Often considered the fastest sport at the Winter Olympics, luge is one of the most hotly anticipated events at Beijing 2022. Now, the world's best luge riders are all set to thrill the world as they push their limits at the Yanqing competition zone.

Starting on Saturday, the luge competition will take place at the National Sliding Center in the Xiaohaituo mountain area, which is located 74 kilometers northwest of the Chinese capital.

Dubbed the "Flying Snow Dragon" due to its zigzag design, the track features a vertical drop of 120 meters between the starting gate and the finish area.

The 1,615-meter track also boasts a first-of-its-kind 360-degree loop section, with a maximum gradient of 18 percent among 16 challenging curves.

The luge competition comprises four events-men's singles, doubles, women's singles and team relay, with 12 medals up for grabs.

Triple Olympic gold medalist Felix Loch of Germany is among the top names to look out for at the Games. Loch, a six-time world champion in men's singles, failed to win a medal at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics and finished second behind Russian Roman Repilov in the singles at the 2021 world championships.

Reigning Olympic champion Natalie Geisenberger remains a dominant force in the women's singles. With four Olympic gold medals and one bronze in her collection, the German is the most decorated female Olympic luger in history and is ready to shine again in Beijing.

In the doubles event, Germany's Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt have been the pair to beat in recent years, winning gold at Sochi 2014 and Pyeongchang 2018. They could make history in Beijing by becoming the first pair to win three consecutive gold medals in the doubles.

Germany also dominates the team relay, winning both gold medals since the event's Olympic debut in Sochi, while Austria and Latvia will also be hopeful of making the podium.

Luge, skeleton and bobsleigh make up the sliding sports at Beijing 2022. Luge is the fastest of the three, with athletes racing at speeds averaging 120-145 kilometers per hour.

In the singles competition, athletes compete on the same track, with each rider getting four runs over the course of two days. Those four rides are timed down to the thousandth of a second, and are added together. The athlete with the fastest total time is the winner.

The doubles competition takes place in a single day, with each pair getting two runs. The duo with the fastest cumulative time wins the gold.

The team relay involves three sleds from each team - women's and men's singles, and doubles. The women's sled is the first to race, with the athlete striking an overhead touch pad at the bottom of the track which opens the gate and allows the next sled (men's singles) to begin. The men's doubles is the last sled to race in the event. The winner is the team with the lowest time after all three sleds cross the finish line.

Just like bobsleigh and skeleton, luge's origins can be traced to Switzerland and the town of St. Moritz. The sport's first organized competition took place in 1883 in Davos, Switzerland, with competitors racing along an icy 4-km road between Davos and the village of Klosters.

The Olympic discipline has been dominated by Germany, which has collected 42 medals in total. The next best nation is Austria (22), followed by Italy (17).