Luge at the 1972 Winter Olympics – Doubles
| Doubles at the XI Olympic Winter Games | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||||||||
| Venue | Sapporo Teine | |||||||||
| Dates | February 10 | |||||||||
| Competitors | 40 from 11 nations | |||||||||
| Winning time | 1:28.35 | |||||||||
| Medalists | ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
| Luge at the 1972 Winter Olympics | ||
|---|---|---|
| ||
| Singles | men | women |
| Doubles | men | |
The Doubles luge competition at the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo was held on 10 February, at Sapporo Teine.[1] A malfunctioning starting gate cancelled the results of the first run.[2] Italy, whose doubles team of Paul Hildgartner and Walter Plaikner won the first run, protested to event officials the results should stand since all contestants had suffered equally, but to no avail.[2] After the protest was denied, a rerun was ordered.[2]
Hildgartner and Plaikner won the first run of the rerun event while the East German team of Horst Hörnlein and Reinhard Bredow had the fastest second run.[3] The combined times were equal for the only time in Winter Olympic luge history.[3] The International Luge Federation consulted with IOC President Avery Brundage on this matter, and gold medals were awarded to both teams as a result.[2] By the time of the 1976 Winter Olympics, artificial track luge would be timed in thousandths of a second (0.001) rather than hundredths of a second (0.01) in an effort to avoid ties.[4] That would prove effective until the FIL European Luge Championships 2008 at Cesana, when another tie occurred.[5] This tie was again in the men's doubles event and it again involved Italy and Germany (East and West Germany reunified in 1990) only this time it was for a bronze medal rather than gold.[5]
Results
| Rank | Athletes | Country | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Paul Hildgartner Walter Plaikner |  | 44.21 | 44.14 | 1:28.35 |
| Horst Hörnlein Reinhard Bredow |  | 44.27 | 44.08 | 1:28.35 |
 | Klaus-Michael Bonsack Wolfram Fiedler | | 44.69 | 44.47 | 1:29.16 |
| 4 | Satoru Arai Masatoshi Kobayashi | .svg.png){kind=small} | 44.73 | 44.90 | 1:29.63 |
| 5 | Hans Brandner Balthasar Schwarm |  | 44.86 | 44.80 | 1:29.66 |
| 5 | Mirosław Więckowski Wojciech Kubik | .svg.png){kind=small} | 44.88 | 44.78 | 1:29.66 |
| 7 | Manfred Schmid Ewald Walch |  | 44.92 | 44.83 | 1:29.75 |
| 8 | Sigisfredo Mair Ernesto Mair | | 45.22 | 45.04 | 1:30.26 |
| 9 | Lucjan Kudzia Ryszard Gawior | | 45.28 | 45.40 | 1:30.68 |
| 9 | Rudolf Schmid Franz Schachner | | 45.37 | 45.31 | 1:30.68 |
| 11 | Stefan Hölzlwimmer Hans Wimmer | | 45.61 | 45.31 | 1:30.92 |
| 12 | Yury Svetikov Sergey Osipov | .svg.png){kind=small} | 45.64 | 45.48 | 1:31.12 |
| 13 | Yury Yegorov Viktor Ilyin | | 45.66 | 45.53 | 1:31.19 |
| 14 | Christian Strøm Stephen Sinding |  | 45.81 | 46.25 | 1:32.06 |
| 15 | Jack Elder Frank Jones, Jr. |  | 46.48 | 46.11 | 1:32.59 |
| 16 | Larry Arbuthnot Doug Hansen |  | 46.47 | 46.22 | 1:32.69 |
| 17 | Robert Berkley, Jr. Richard Cavanaugh | | 46.58 | 46.59 | 1:33.17 |
| 18 | Masako Eguchi Kazuaki Ichikawa | | 46.93 | 46.63 | 1:33.56 |
| 19 | Stephen Marsh Jonnie Woodall |  | 46.77 | 47.05 | 1:33.82 |
| 20 | Michel de Carvalho Jeremy Palmer-Tomkinson | | 47.09 | 47.50 | 1:34.59 |
References
- 1 2 "The XI Olympic Winter Games Sapporo 1972" (PDF). Organizing Committee for the XIth Olympic Winter Games. LA84 Foundation. 1972. Retrieved January 20, 2014.
- 1 2 3 4 Wallechinsky, David and Jaime Loucky (2009). "Luge (Toboggan): Two-Seater". In The Completed Book of the Winter Olympics: 2010 Edition. London: Aurum Press Limited. pp. 173-4.
- 1 2 1972 Winter Olympics official report. p. 495. Accessed 7 November 2010. (in English) & (in French)
- ↑ 1976 Winter Olympics official report. Archived 2008-02-26 at the Wayback Machine. pp. 144-5, 147, 149-51. Accessed 7 November 2010. (in English), (in French), & (in German)
- 1 2 FIL European Luge Championships Cesana 12 January 2008 men's doubles results. Accessed 7 November 2010.