DAY #2 SPORTS FOCUS: The greatest sports dynasty of all-time: the German Luge Team

Tom Brady led the New England Patriots to six Super Bowls titles and nine appearances spanning 18 seasons, Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls won six NBA titles in the 1990′s, including two three-peats. The Montreal Canadians won 24 Stanley Cup titles in their illustrious history, including ten in 15 seasons between 1964-’79, but it is the New York Yankees and their 25 World Series championships, that ranks as the most titles among North American sports franchises.

So which team is the greatest sports dynasty of all-time?

It’s a lengthy, perhaps friendly, perhaps heated, discussion no doubt, but I’m going with…wait for it…the uber-dominant German Luge Team. That’s right – the sizzling German sliders are just too fast to be caught across decades of Olympic ice. Beijing, as we witnessed on Sunday night, apparently is no different.

Carrying on the great tradition, Johannes Ludwig slid to Germany’s 11th Olympic men’s gold medal, across 16 Winter Games, on Sunday night on the rock solid ice and under the lights at China’s National Sliding Center. He bolstered Germany’s Olympic winning percentage to an incredible 69%.

The 35-year-old Ludwig – from Suhl, in the eastern part of Germany – won the four-heat race in commanding fashion, increasing his winning margin in the final heat for a .16 second victory ahead of his only legitimate challenger, silver medalist Austrian Wolfgang Kindl. Ludwig launched night two of action with a blazing start, speeding a new Beijing track record of 57.043.

“Unbelievable,” was Ludwig’s succinct first comment after his gold medal performance in Yanging,

Ludwig exceeded speeds of 132 Km/h on the 1583-meter, sixteen curve, sliding track.

The ‘cool as ice’ German slider, who also won a bronze medal in PyeongChang four years ago, celebrated with teammates while draped in his country’s flag, establishing himself as yet one more “unbelievable” German luge legend.

Germany’s 69% Olympic winning percentage is only the tip of the iceberg.

Should we unveil some telling statistics and begin the great debate – perhaps over a tall, frothy Weissbier or two, which by the way was the beer of choice of the greatest luger ever and proud Bavarian, Georg Hackl, who was known to put down two, three or maybe four in celebration of his three Olympic gold, two Olympic silver and three world championship victories. Add the team event to his collection of world championship golds and the number rises to ten.

Hackl – who was affectionately known as Hackl-Schorsch – was an extremely skilled bullet zooming down the ice for decades, winning his three Olympic gold medals at consecutive winter Games between 1992 and 1998, and it was nearly five straight, had it not been for his teammate Jens Mueller and Italian rival Armin Zöggeler.

While Hackl certainly tops the list of German luge legends, there are many more to bring into the discussion. The short list joining Ludwig and Hackl as Olympic champions are two-time gold medalist Felix Loch, who just missed a medal in fourth place on Sunday, Bernhard Glass, Detlef Guenther, Wolfgang Scheidel, and Thomas Koehler – all household names, right?

Not surprisingly, the Hackl-led group have also dominated across world championships and World Cups for decades and decades. Germany has also won the only two Olympic mixed team events now held at the Games, seeking three in a row in Beijing.

Naturally, it doesn’t hurt that Germany has four artificially refrigerated luge tracks – Altenberg, Winterberg, Koenigssee and Winterberg – two more than any other country in the world.

And we’ve only been talking about the men’s team – let’s bring in the women to our conversation and Tom Brady’s Patriots and Michael Jordan’s Bulls are in big trouble then.

The nearly unstoppable German women’s squad hit the Yanqing ice on Monday for runs one and two as “The Queen” of women’s luge, 34-year-old Natalie Geisenberger, chases her third consecutive Olympic gold medal in Beijing. Her toughest challengers, naturally, are a German teammates Julia Taubitz, and one outsider, Austrian Anna Berreiter, who is currently tied with Geisbenberger atop the World Cup standings. One of Geisenberger’s coaches – Hackl of course.

Geisenberger and her German teammates have accounted for 11 gold medal in 15 Olympic competitions, dating to Innsbruck 1964, for an astounding 73% winning percentage, even better than Hackl and the boys.

Yet one more mind-blowing German women’s Olympic stats (are you sitting down)?

Again, referring to the history of women’s Olympic luge (including the former East and West Germany, and now the unified Germany), the country has won 28 Olympic medals. Second to them – Austrian with only six. In total, the German ladies have won a staggering 33 of 45 Olympic medals for a 73% success rate.

We could go on and on for hours about the unbelievable, fascinating and long history of German luge success, statistics and stories. However, that would require a heck of a lot of good German beer, and probably some tasty Bratwurst as well, but most importantly the friendly presence of my all-time favorite German luger, none other than Mr. Hackl himself.

Prost Georg! Prost! Here’s to more German luge success around the next bend!

Downhill blown to Monday, New Zealander wins snowboard gold

Earlier this morning, New Zealand became the first country from the Southern Hemisphere to win a gold medal as Zoe-Sadowski-Synnott wowed the judges to take top honors in the women’s snowboard slopestyle event. American Julia Marino took silver, the first medal for Team USA, while Aussie Tess Coady made it two for two for the Southern Hemisphere earning bronze.

South of Zhangjiakou in Yanqing organizers tried, delaying the start three times, but due to strong winds on the mountain postponed the men’s downhill until Monday. It will not be squeezed in the middle women’s giant slalom runs as Mikaela Shiffrin begins her quest for five medal.

At China’s National Speed Skating Center, it was Swede Nils van der Poel – despite his Dutch name – gaining significant time on the final two laps, breaking the Olympic record and winning gold in the men’s 5000m. His winning time was 6:08.94, 0.47 seconds faster than Dutch silver medalist Patrick Roest.

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