Australia and Olympic Luge
Four Australians have competed at the Olympic Games in Luge. Diane Ogle was the first Australian to represent her country in this sport. She competed at Albertville 1992 and flew down the track to place 21st from 24 contenders. At the following Olympics, Roger White became the first male to represent Australia, placing 32nd at Lillehammer 1994.
It was another 12 years before Hannah Campbell-Pegg took to the track, finishing 23rd at Torino in 2006. When she competed in Vancouver four years later, she became Australia’s first luge dual-Olympian, also finishing 23rd.
Alex Ferlazzo became Australia’s fourth luge representative when he was selected to compete at the 2014 Sochi Games. A Youth Olympian who competed at the Innsbruck 2012 Games, Alex finished 33rd in his Olympic debut at just 19 years old.
Hailing from Townsville, Alex went on to compete at this second Olympic Games at PyeongChang 2018 where he again improved on his Olympic results, finishing in 28th – Australia’s top male result ever.
Olympic History
Luge is one of two sports at the Winter Olympics (along with short track speed skating) that is timed to the thousandth of a second.
The sport was included on the Winter Olympic program for the first time at Innsbruck 1964 and has remained on the program ever since. Women have competed in this sport from the start, with the doubles competition later opening up for all competitors at Albertville 1992.
Sport Format
In all events, each run counts, and the fastest total time determines the winner.
There are four gold medals decided for Luge; men's singles, women's singles, open doubles and a team relay. Singles competitions are decided on the aggregate time of four runs over two consecutive days. Doubles is a one day competition with two runs.
In the team event, each country fields a men’s singles sled, a doubles sled and a women’s singles sled. All three entrants from one team slide one after another with the clock stopping only after the third sled has crossed the finish line. A touch pad at the finish line must be activated by an athlete in one sled before the gate at the start line opens for the following team member to compete.
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Sport Snapshot
20 Years on from Gold!
On 16th February 2002 Steven Bradbury won Australia's most famous gold medal and two days later Alisa Camplin cemented Australia's footprint on the Winter Olympic stage.
During the 20 years since, Winter Olympic Sports in Australia have gone from strength to strength, developing world class infrastructure and yielding success on snow and ice.
