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U.S. Wins First-Ever Medal In Men’s Luge

The results from the fastest sport in the Olympics are in 

February 12, 2018
By Alexa Kurzius
XIN LI/Getty Images

Chris Mazdzer zooms down the luge track in Pyeongchang, South Korea. He won the silver medal with a total time of 3 minutes, 10.728 seconds. 

On Sunday February 11, Chris Mazdzer became the first American man to win a medal in luge since it became an Olympic sport in 1964. “It means everything,” Mazdzer said in an interview on NBC after his win. David Gleirscher from Austria captured the gold, and Johannes Ludwig from Germany went home with bronze.

Luge is the fastest sport in the Winter Olympics. Athletes lie flat on a small sled and launch themselves feet-first down an icy track. They can hit speeds up to 140 kilometers (90 miles) per hour! Sliders go so fast that race times are measured in thousandths of a second. Short-track speed skating is the only other sport timed to this level of precision.

Jeon Heon-Kyun/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

And the winners are (from left to right): Silver medalist Chris Mazdzer of the U.S., Gold medalist David Gleirscher of Austria, and bronze winner Johannes Ludwig of Germany.

THE SCIENCE OF SLEDDING

To gain speed for a race, lugers launch themselves down the track with as much force as possible. They grasp handles on either side of the track, rocking forward and backward, and then give a powerful push. The athlete accelerates even more by paddling against the ice with spiked gloves.

As they follow the course, lugers lie back and point their toes as they go downward. Then, the force of gravity takes over, rocketing them down the track. Athletes position their bodies in a flat, aerodynamic position. They also wear skin-tight speed suits and helmets with visors that extend past their chins. This allows air to flow over their bodies without slowing them down.

LUGE SLED DESIGN

Lugers rocket down the track on a small, fiberglass sled. The sleds are custom-built to fit a slider's proportions. Here are the different parts of this important piece of equipment. 

Reuters Graphics

TIMING IS EVERYTHING

Each luge course is different, following the natural shape of the mountains it’s built on. The track in Pyeongchang is 1.34 kilometers (0.84 miles) long. It has a total of 16 curves that twist down the mountain. But curve 9 is the toughest and dashed many competitors' medal hopes. Athletes go make four runs down the track. Their times for each run are added together, and the best total time wins. The difference between Gleirscher’s and Mazdzer’s total time was just 0.026 seconds.

Chris Mazdzer is one of the three members of the U.S. men’s Olympic luge team. To learn more about him, check out DynaMath’s article about Winter Olympic athletes to watch.  This is Mazdzer's third Olympics. When he was 17, he missed a spot on the U.S. Olympic team by 0.161 seconds.

Mazdzer is quick to point out that luge is a lot harder than it looks. “We don't just lie there!” he told NBC. “Luge actually requires the most skill out of all of the sliding sports,” he said.

Stay tuned for more Olympics updates, like the results of pairs figure skating later this week. The events continue this week through February 25.

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