Luge is one of the oldest winter sports, yet it only became part of the Olympic programme at Innsbruck 1964, with women’s singles, men’s singles, and men’s doubles. A mixed team relay was added at Sochi 2014, and Milano Cortina 2026 will see the debut of a fifth event: women’s doubles, held at the Cortina Sliding Centre in Cortina d’Ampezzo.
Among Italy’s 18 Olympic medals in luge, one name stands above all: Armin Zöggeler, a true legend of the sport. Over the course of his illustrious career, he claimed six Olympic medals: two golds (Salt Lake City 2002 and Turin 2006), one silver (Nagano 1998), and three bronzes (Lillehammer 1994, Vancouver 2010, and Sochi 2014).
With that bronze in Sochi, Zöggeler became the first athlete in Olympic history - Summer or Winter - to win an individual medal in the same event at six consecutive Games. In doing so, he surpassed a host of global sporting greats, including German sharpshooter Ralf Schumann, fellow luger Georg Hackl, speed skater Claudia Pechstein, Japanese judoka Ryoko Tamura, and Italy’s own fencing star Valentina Vezzali.