Koran lugers end Beijing Games finishing 13th in team relay

Olympic Sports

Published: 11 Feb. 2022, 17:16

Koran lugers end Beijing Games finishing 13th in team relay

Korean lugers Park Jin-yong and Cho Jung-myung compete their race in the luge team relay during the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games, at the Yanqing National Sliding Centre on Thursday. [YONHAP]

The Korean luge team finished their last run at the Beijing Olympics in 13th place in the team relay.

Out of a total of 14 teams in the relay, Slovakia was unable to finish the race and Korea finished in last place with a total time of 3:11.238, 7.832 seconds behind leader Germany.

The luge team relay event was introduced at the 2014 Sochi Olympics. For the relay, there are three sleds on one team: One woman, one man and a doubles pair. All four lugers work together, racing one after the other.

The one-woman luge goes first and does the run with the starting gate open. When the one-woman sled reaches the finish line, the athlete must hit the touch pad which will open the starting gates for the one-man sled to begin their run. The clock does not stop between each race. After the one-man sled crosses the finish line and hits the pad, the gate for the two-man luge opens.

Korean luger Aileen Christina Frisch touches the pad in the luge team relay during the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games, at the Yanqing National Sliding Centre on Thursday. [YONHAP]

German-born Korean Aileen Christina Frisch reached the finish line in 14th place with a time of 1:02.682, passing the baton to Lim Nam-kyu, who also reached the finish line 14th with a time of 1:05.265. Park Jin-yong and Cho Jung-myung touched the pad last with a time of 1:03.291. That time put Park and Cho eighth out of the doubles sleds.

Out of the 16 curves in the track, curve No. 13 was a problem for Team Korea, with Frisch and Lim both struggling to get around it.

Now all luge events at the Beijing Games are over, with Germany taking the team relay gold medal to sweep all four luge golds, Austria taking the silver medal and Latvia winning the bronze medal.

BY YUN SO-HYANG [yun.sohyang@joongang.co.kr]