Luge at the 2010 Winter Olympics – Women's singles


The women's luge at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada took place on 15–16 February at the Whistler Sliding Centre in Whistler, British Columbia. Germany's Sylke Otto was the two-time defending Olympic champion. Otto retired midway through the 2006-07 season in January 2007 to pregnancy and after suffering a crash at the track in Königssee, Germany. Erin Hamlin of the United States was the defending world champion. The test event that took place at the venue was won by Germany's Natalie Geisenberger. The last World Cup event prior to the 2010 games took place in Cesana, Italy on 31 January 2010 and was won by Geisenberger. Geisenberger's teammate Tatjana Hüfner, the defending Olympic bronze medalist, won the overall World Cup for 2009-10 season in women's singles.

Records

While the IOC does not consider luge times eligible for Olympic records, the International Luge Federation does maintain records for both the start and a complete run at each track it competes.
These records were set during the test event at the women's singles/ men's doubles start house for the 2010 Games on 20 February 2009.
TypeDateAthleteTime
Start20 February 20097.183
Track20 February 200948.992

Death of Nodar Kumaritashvili

During training on February 12, 2010, Georgian luger, Nodar Kumaritashvili was going at over when he crashed in the last turn and hit a steel pole. He was administered CPR at the track, then taken away to hospital where he was later pronounced dead. Training was immediately stopped. As a result, the start of the men's single competition was moved to the women's/doubles' start to reduce speed and the wall at corner where Kumaritashvili crashed was raised.
Investigations were conducted the same day, concluding that the accident was not caused by deficiencies in the track. A joint statement was issued by the FIL, the International Olympic Committee, and the Vancouver Organizing Committee over Kurmaitasvili's death with training suspended for the rest of that day. According to the Coroners Service of British Columbia and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the cause was to Kumaritashvili coming out of turn 15 late and not compensating for turn 16. Because of this fatality, an extra of wall was added after the end of turn 16 and the ice profile was changed. It also moved the men's singles luge event from its starthouse to the one for both the women's singles and men's doubles event. Kumaritashvili is the first Olympic athlete to die at the Winter Olympics in training since 1992 and the first luger to die in a practice event at the Winter Olympics since Kazimierz Kay-Skrzypeski of Great Britain was killed at the luge track used for the 1964 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck. It was also luge's first fatality since 10 December 1975, when an Italian luger was killed. Kumaritavili's teammate Levan Gureshidze withdrew prior to the first run of the event.
Women's singles and men's doubles start was moved to the Junior start house of the track, located after turn 6. Germany's Geisenberger complained that it was not a women's start but more of a kinder start. Her teammate Hüfner who had the fastest speed on two runs of stated that the new start position "..does not help good starters like myself". American Erin Hamlin stated the track was still demanding even after the distance was lessened from and that you were still hitting.
On 23 March 2010, FIL President Fendt, VANOC President John Furlong, 2010 men's singles gold medalist Felix Loch of Germany visited Kumaritashvili's grave in his hometown of Bakuriani to pay respects as part of tradition in the Georgian Orthodox Church.
The FIL published their report in regards to Kumaritashvili's death after the FIL Commissions Meeting in St. Leonhard, Austria for both sport and technical commissions on 9–11 April 2010. This report was prepared by FIL Secretary General Svein Romstad and Vice President Claire DelNegro, who are from the United States.

Qualifying athletes

These are the athletes who qualified for the women's singles event as of 4 February 2010.
The first two runs took place on 15 February at 17:00 PST and 18:30 PST. On 16 February, the final two runs took place at 13:00 PST and 14:30 PST.
during one of runs on the first day of the competitionFirst run start order was released on the morning of 15 February 2010.
Romania's Violeta Stramturaru was knocked unconscious on 11 February 2010 after slamming into several walls during a training run. She was strapped to a backboard and placed on a stretcher though her arms were moving. Stramuraru's sister Raluca, who had completed her run before her sister and made it through without issue, rushed to the end of the observation deck to see if she was okay as the public address announcer directed medical personnel to the scene. American Sweeney, sliding after Violeta, went airborne prior to the final curve and crashed though she walked away shaken up. Violeta later withdrew prior to the event while Raluca would finish 21st.
Yasuda was disqualified after the first run after her post-competition weigh in for having too heavy a sled. Her sled weighed when the maximum allowed by the FIL is Romania's Chiras crashed out during the second run, the only crash during the actual competition. Šišajová caused a sensation when she went airborne during the fourth run on Turn 13 though she managed to stay on her sled. Prior to her fourth run, Hüfner took a nap to ease her nervousness. Geisenberger's final run was delayed when a track-side photographer accidentally set off a water hose.
Defending World Champion Hamlin finished a disappointing 16th. Hüfner followed up her bronze at the 2006 Winter Olympics with gold in this Olympics. Reithmeyer, who finished eighth at Turin, earned her best career finish and became the first non-German to medal in this event at the Winter Olympics since fellow Austrian Angelika Neuner won bronze at Nagano in 1998. Defending European champion Ivanova finished fourth on her 19th birthday. The margin of victory was the largest since 1994.
Two-time Olympic champion Otto commented to Reuters that "Tatti is a very strong slider and still relatively young so she could achieve what I did and win this again."
Canada's Gough commented on the 14th in the wake of Kumaritashvili's death two days earlier that "We’ve got the world championships here in a few years so hopefully we can actually have a race." instead of the start at the Junior start house.
Time listed at top in italics is start time while time below is the track time. SR - Start Record. TR - Track Record. Top finishes in both times are in boldface.
RankBibAthleteCountryRun 1Run 2Run 3Run 4TotalBehind
6Tatjana Hüfner8.437
41.760		8.370
41.481		8.377
41.666		8.363
41.617		2:46.524
2Nina Reithmayer8.413
41.728		8.403
41.563		8.448
41.884		8.458
41.839		2:47.014+0.490
10Natalie Geisenberger8.410
41.743		8.383
41.657		8.372
41.800		8.401
41.901		2:47.101+0.577
23Tatiana Ivanova8.417
41.816		8.377
41.601		8.406
41.914		8.395
41.850		2:47.181+0.657
9Anke Wischnewski8.431
41.785		8.406
41.685		8.452
41.894		8.429
41.889		2:47.253+0.729
8Alexandra Rodionova8.416
41.828		8.420
41.731		8.434
41.984		8.446
41.913		2:47.456+0.932
3Martina Kocher8.449
42.005		8.357
41.697		8.412
41.976		8.405
41.897		2:47.575+1.051
29Ewelina Staszulonek8.521
41.975		8.506
41.816		8.504
41.948		8.517
41.882		2:47.621+1.097
16Maija Tīruma8.465
41.773		8.518
41.933		8.501
42.012		8.471
41.936		2:47.654+1.130
1024Natalia Khoreva8.444
41.932		8.427
41.785		8.464
42.175		8.442
42.092		2:47.984+1.460
111Natalya Yakuchenko8.478
42.119		8.473
41.809		8.539
42.132		8.489
42.026		2:48.086+1.562
127Veronika Halder8.570
42.015		8.574
41.881		8.563
42.078		8.615
42.143		2:48.117+1.593
1326Anna Orlova8.512
41.998		8.546
41.947		8.569
42.260		8.531
42.100		2:48.305+1.781
1417Veronika Sabolová8.463
41.999		8.488
41.925		8.588
42.563		8.482
42.055		2:48.542+2.018
1513Regan Lauscher8.700
42.368		8.670
42.289		8.564
42.211		8.546
42.153		2:49.021+2.497
1611Erin Hamlin8.461
41.835		8.640
42.219		8.826
42.792		8.661
42.262		2:49.108+2.584
1712Julia Clukey8.456
42.059		8.546
42.075		8.615
42.472		8.756
42.754		2:49.360+2.836
185Alex Gough8.711
42.275		8.775
42.411		8.636
42.346		8.673
42.359		2:49.391+2.867
1915Liliya Ludan8.660
42.312		8.650
42.302		8.699
42.477		8.669
42.364		2:49.455+2.931
2014Sandra Gasparini8.540
42.339		8.550
42.161		8.733
42.881		8.676
42.621		2:50.002+3.478
2122Raluca Strămăturaru8.593
42.475		8.603
42.198		8.631
42.815		8.631
42.584		2:50.072+3.548
224Megan Sweeney8.623
42.450		8.717
42.690		8.647
42.625		8.683
42.450		2:50.215+3.691
2328Hannah Campbell-Pegg8.670
42.527		8.679
42.570		8.663
42.606		8.633
42.519		2:50.222+3.698
2427Agnese Koklaca8.541
42.627		8.578
42.334		8.593
43.091		8.595
42.336		2:50.388+3.864
2520Meaghan Simister8.663
42.524		8.658
42.497		8.703
42.787		8.697
42.662		2:50.470+3.946
2618Madoka Harada8.716
42.608		8.594
42.112		8.674
42.572		8.920
43.188		2:50.480+3.956
2719Jana Šišajová8.610
42.297		8.560
42.172		8.630
42.529		8.645
48.101		2:55.099+8.575
25Mihaela Chiras8.692
43.494		8.615
DNF		DNF
21Aya YasudaDSQ