The team relay closed the chapter on luge competition at the Milan Cortina Olympics on Thursday, and it was an emphatic fourth straight gold medal for Germany in the event. Austria won its second-straight silver medal in the event and host nation Italy added to its incredible Games with a bronze.
Germany entered the 2026 Games as the winners of every luge relay since the event was introduced at Sochi 2014. At Beijing 2022, they won it by just 0.08 seconds.
But this time, the Germans were utterly dominant, winning by over half a second to grab the country's fifth Olympic luge medal of Milan Cortina 2026 and 41st luge gold medal in its Olympic history.
The win gave German doubles duo Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt their seventh Olympic gold medal and eighth medal overall (each), making them the most decorated luge athletes of all time. The "Two Tobis" also became the sixth and seventh athletes to win the same Winter Olympic event four times.
Singles champions Julia Taubitz and Max Langenhan doubled their gold medal count, and women's doubles duo Dajana Eitberger and Magdalena Matschina added a gold to go with their doubles silver medal.
The United States went fifth in the starting order, with women’s singles bronze medalist Ashley Farquharson leading the charge. Farquharson laid down the second-fastest run of the women’s singles runners to that point, and men’s doubles breakout pair Marcus Mueller and Ansel Haugsjaa went fastest to give both Jonny Gustafson and women’s doubles pair Chevonne Forgan and Sophia Kirkby room to build a near four-second lead to the next-fastest Ukrainian team.
The Latvian team followed, and trailed in every leg until women’s doubles pairing Marta Robezniece and Kitija Bogdanova blitzed across the finish line to give their nation a 0.027-second lead over Team USA.
The U.S. finished the relay in 5th, less than three tenths of a second off a medal position.
