Feet first downhill on a sled at cheetah speed: What to know about luge at the Winter Olympics

By Canadian Press on January 6, 2026.

Nobody knows for certain when luge — the French word for sled — started, since nobody surely took note of the first time someone slid feet-first down a slope.

Some say the 15th century, with evidence that there were races in Norway around that time. USA Luge believes that the sport could date all the way back to around 800 B.C., citing research that Vikings used sleds that had two runners, kind of like those kids have gotten for decades.

The sport, at least as we know it now, began taking off in 1964. It’s all about speed, sliders on their backs, going feet-first and reaching more than 85 mph (137 kph) on some of the tracks that are in use around the world today. Here is what to know as the Winter Olympics arrive.

How it works

Luge features men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles and women’s doubles in the Olympic program along with a team relay featuring one entrant from each discipline. Sliders push off of handles to start their run, then dig their fingertips – using gloves with tiny spikes on them – into the ice to help generate more speed before getting settled on the sled for the trip down the chute. They use their bodies (hands, leg, weight) to make minor steering adjustments. There are no brakes, so the athletes pull up the front of the sled and use their feet to slow down as the track tilts uphill.

Who to watch

The easy answer for this used to be “the Germans,” but the fields are more wide open these days. Germany still has stars like back-to-back men’s world champion Max Langenhan, the legendary Felix Loch and women’s world champion Julia Taubitz. But host Italy (led by Dominik Fischnaller) should be strong, Austria is loaded (especially Madeleine Egle in women’s singles, Selina Egle and Lara Kipp in women’s doubles, and Thomas Steu and Wolfgang Kindl in men’s doubles) and the Americans (including Summer Britcher, Ashley Farquharson and Emily Fischnaller in women’s singles) have a slew of legitimate medal hopefuls. Women’s doubles is in the Olympic program for the first time this winter.

Venues and dates

Competition will take place from Feb. 7-12 at the Cortina Sliding Center.

Memorable moments

The U.S. has won six Olympic medals, but none of them gold – three silver and three bronze. There was a tie for gold at the 1972 Olympics in men’s doubles, when Italy’s Paul Hildgartner and Walter Plaikner had the same time as East Germany’s Horst Hörnlein and Reinhard Bredow. Official timing was extended to thousandths of a second after that race, instead of the hundredths like in many sports.

Fun facts

It could be a home Olympics for Emily Fischnaller; the veteran U.S. slider has competed under the name Emily Sweeney until this season. She married Italian star Dominik Fischnaller in 2025 and the couple has a home a short drive from the Cortina track. … The Tobis — German doubles stars Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt — have a chance to break a tie with retired German women’s great Natalie Geisenberger as the most decorated Olympic lugers ever. Wendl and Arlt have six golds, matching Geisenberger’s total. She has seven medals overall, one more than the Tobis. To give some idea of Germany’s dominance in luge, consider this: Germany has 22 gold medals, the most of any nation. Second on that list? That would be East Germany, which hasn’t existed since 1990, with 13 golds.

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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

Tim Reynolds, The Associated Press

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