BEIJING (AP) — Johannes Ludwig let all his rivals know again in November that he could be the one to beat on the Beijing Olympics.
He was proper.
Ludwig is the Olympic males’s champion for the primary time, making him the oldest — he’s eight days shy of turning 36 — to win that race’s gold medal. Ludwig completed 4 runs on the Yanqing Sliding Middle in 3 minutes, 48.735 seconds, 0.160 seconds forward of Wolfgang Kindl of Austria and 0.951 seconds forward of bronze medalist Dominik Fischnaller of Italy.
“I had a number of not-so-successful years,” Ludwig mentioned. “In 2014, I didn’t qualify for the Olympics. I had a number of fourth locations at world championships; I believe perhaps 5. The enjoyable of this sport is to all the time proceed pushing, and I believe this medal is an indication that I did the best factor.”
It’s no shock {that a} German received, and shouldn’t be a shock that this was Ludwig’s flip. There have been 16 Olympic males’s luge races; a German man has received 11 of them. Ludwig was the bronze medalist on the Pyeongchang Video games 4 years in the past, then made it clear that he could be the one to catch on the Beijing Video games when he arrived in China for the season-opening World Cup race and easily routed the sphere.
“I do know this second and Johannes, he’s labored a very long time for this medal,” mentioned Felix Loch, a two-time Olympic champion from Germany who was fourth and embraced Ludwig warmly when the race was over. “And now he’s bought the medal. It’s nice for him and we are going to have a good time with him.”
Ludwig was almost a second higher than anybody else in that World Cup this previous fall, which is simply two heats, not the Olympic 4. His profitable margin at that World Cup was the most important luge had seen in almost eight years, a merely dominant exhibiting.
Kindl closed the hole between Ludwig and the remainder of the world on the Beijing Video games.
Simply not by sufficient.
And with that, the dream season for Ludwig is full — World Cup general champion, and now, the Olympic crown. He already knew what Olympic gold felt like after being a part of the group that received the relay for Germany in Pyeongchang.
This time, although, the highest of the rostrum was his and his alone.
Kindl grabbed an Austrian flag when his race was performed, completely content material with Olympic silver. Fischnaller couldn’t comprise his celebration when he clinched his medal, hugging longtime associate Emily Sweeney of the US — she competes within the ladies’s race that begins Monday — and screaming into the frosty air.
“I hope it’s an excellent omen and perhaps she has one thing round her neck in two days,” Fischnaller mentioned.
Ludwig was the bronze medalist on the Pyeongchang Video games, denying Fischnaller a medal there by 0.002 seconds — nowhere close to sufficient time to even blink. Fischnaller carried that disappointment for 4 years.
“Lastly, I’ve it now and I’m very excited, joyful, relieved,” Fischnaller mentioned.
Defending Olympic gold medalist David Gleirscher of Austria had hassle in each runs Sunday and completed solely fifteenth.
The sector was lower from 34 sliders to twenty for the fourth and closing run, and all three American males superior to the fourth warmth. Chris Mazdzer, the silver medalist from the Pyeongchang Video games, was eighth. Tucker West completed thirteenth — his greatest end in three Olympic appearances. And Jonny Gustafson was nineteenth in his Olympic debut.
“I’ll positively take eighth,” mentioned Mazdzer, who will compete within the group relay later this week for what is going to virtually definitely be his closing Olympic occasion. “My greatest end this yr. It feels good. It does.”
By the point the fourth and closing run got here round, it was clearly a two-man race. Barring catastrophe, both Ludwig or Kindl could be the winner; Ludwig’s margin over Kindl was 0.112 seconds after three runs, 0.722 seconds — that’s an enormous margin in luge — over the third-place Fischnaller.
Ludwig, the final sled on the monitor, was flawless.
He wouldn’t let gold slip away, grabbing at his helmet in disbelief earlier than leaping right into a mob of joyful German athletes and coaches to start the celebration.
“I’m fairly joyful,” Ludwig mentioned.
Amongst different notables, Fan Duoyao — China’s first males’s luge Olympian — was twenty fourth. Mateusz Sochowicz of Poland, the slider who broke his left kneecap and lower his proper leg to the bone in a coaching accident on the Yanqing monitor in November, was twenty fifth.
And Saba Kumaritashvili, the cousin of Nodar Kumartashvili — the slider from the previous Soviet republic of Georgia who died in a coaching accident hours earlier than the 2010 Vancouver Video games formally opened — was thirty first. He crossed the end line, smiled broadly and pumped his fists in celebration.
“I’m very joyful,” Kumaritashvili mentioned. “I’ve performed what I wanted.”
He left feeling like a winner. So did many others. Ludwig simply topped all of them.
___
Extra AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/winter-olympics and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports