Luge

What is luge?

In luge, the athlete lies on their back with the feet pointing in the direction of travel. The sled is small and open, consisting of a seat shell and two runners that end in horns at the front. Races take place on the same artificial ice tracks as bobsleigh and skeleton, but with their own, usually higher start points. Lugers reach very high speeds.

The disciplines

• Women's and men's singles: the classic competition over several runs.
• Doubles: Two athletes lie on top of each other on one sled. For a long time this was an open event contested almost exclusively by men. The 2026 Winter Games featured an Olympic women's doubles event for the first time.
• Team relay: Olympic since 2014. Women's singles, men's singles and doubles go one after another. At the finish, each athlete hits a touchpad that opens the start gate for the next.

How steering works

A luge sled has no steering wheel and no brake. It is steered with subtle pressure: the calves press against the runner horns, the shoulders shift weight, and the head stays as flat as possible to keep air resistance low. Even small mistakes lead to wall contact that costs valuable time. Braking only happens in the outrun, with the feet.

At the start, lugers sit on the sled, pull themselves forward on handles and then paddle on the ice with spikes on their gloves to build speed. Then they lie flat.

Timing to the thousandth

Singles are timed to the thousandth of a second, more precisely than bobsleigh. In Olympic competitions, the times from four runs are added together. The fact that medals are still decided by a few thousandths shows how close the world's best are.

Equipment

Sleds are individually tailored to the athlete. Runners, steels and seat shell are tightly regulated, and the temperature of the steels is measured before the start. Suits are subject to rules on air permeability so that nobody gains an advantage from especially smooth fabrics. As in bobsleigh, weight differences between athletes are partly compensated with additional weights.

Natural track luge

Alongside Olympic luge on artificial tracks there is natural track luge. It is raced on icy mountain roads or paths without banked curves; the sled is steered and braked with the hands, a rein and the feet. The sport is especially popular in Austria, South Tyrol and Italy and has its own World and European Championships. It is not Olympic.

Tracks and successes in the German-speaking region

Luge is a domain of the German-speaking world. Germany has artificial ice tracks in Königssee, Altenberg, Winterberg and Oberhof, and Austria in Igls. German lugers have shaped the sport for decades:

• Georg Hackl won Olympic gold in singles in 1992, 1994 and 1998.
• Felix Loch and Natalie Geisenberger became multiple Olympic champions.
• In doubles, Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt dominated for many years.

From Austria, brothers Andreas and Wolfgang Linger won Olympic doubles gold in 2006 and 2010.

Getting started

Almost everyone knows tobogganing as a leisure activity. The way into competitive luge is through clubs near the artificial ice tracks. Children often start on short sections and with lighter sleds. Many tracks offer guest rides or taster sessions in winter.

Curious and little known

• Lugers lie so flat that during the run they only see the track through a narrow gap above their feet. They therefore have to know the course by heart.
• The English word luge comes from French and simply means "sled".