Austria dethrones Germany at luge worlds
Austria won three of the five gold medals in Olympic program events at this weekend's world luge championships, becoming the first nation to outperform Germany since 1996.
Austria won the women's singles (Lisa Schulte), men's doubles (Juri Gatt and Riccardo Schopf) and women's doubles (Selina Egle and Lara Michaela Kipp), which makes its Olympic debut in 2026.
Germany won men's singles (Max Langenhan) and Sunday's closing team relay.
The U.S. earned multiple medals — Chevonne Forgan and Sophia Kirkby's bronze in women's doubles and team relay silver — for the first time since 2017.
Germany's luge dominance has been challenged in recent decades, but not like this since 1996, when Austria won two of the three golds in events that were on the Olympic program at the time.
Those worlds and these worlds were both held in Altenberg, a German town in Saxony, bordering the Czech Republic.
In years since 1996, nations matched Germany's gold total in Olympic program events at worlds held outside of Germany, most recently Russia doing so in 2020 in Sochi. Russia won the most total golds at those worlds, but three of its five came in sprint events that aren't on the Olympic program.
