Luge at the 1972 Winter Olympics – Doubles

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][3]

Doubles at the XI Olympic Winter Games
Venue	Sapporo Teine
Dates	10 February
Competitors	40 from 11 nations
Winning time	1:28.35
Medalists
Horst Hörnlein, Reinhard Bredow  East Germany Paul Hildgartner, Walter Plaikner  Italy Klaus-Michael Bonsack, Wolfram Fiedler  East Germany

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.[4] The combined times were equal for the only time in Winter Olympic luge history.[4] 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.[5] That would prove effective until the FIL European Luge Championships 2008 at Cesana, when another tie occurred.[6] 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.[6]

Results

Rank[1]	Athletes	Country	Run 1	Run 2	Total
	Paul Hildgartner Walter Plaikner	Italy	44.21	44.14	1:28.35
	Horst Hörnlein Reinhard Bredow	East Germany	44.27	44.08	1:28.35
	Klaus-Michael Bonsack Wolfram Fiedler	East Germany	44.69	44.47	1:29.16
4	Satoru Arai Masatoshi Kobayashi	Japan	44.73	44.90	1:29.63
5	Hans Brandner Balthasar Schwarm	West Germany	44.86	44.80	1:29.66
5	Mirosław Więckowski Wojciech Kubik	Poland	44.88	44.78	1:29.66
7	Manfred Schmid Ewald Walch	Austria	44.92	44.83	1:29.75
8	Sigisfredo Mair Ernesto Mair	Italy	45.22	45.04	1:30.26
9	Lucjan Kudzia Ryszard Gawior	Poland	45.28	45.40	1:30.68
9	Rudolf Schmid Franz Schachner	Austria	45.37	45.31	1:30.68
11	Stefan Hölzlwimmer Hans Wimmer	West Germany	45.61	45.31	1:30.92
12	Yury Svetikov Sergey Osipov	Soviet Union	45.64	45.48	1:31.12
13	Yury Yegorov Viktor Ilyin	Soviet Union	45.66	45.53	1:31.19
14	Christian Strøm Stephen Sinding	Norway	45.81	46.25	1:32.06
15	Jack Elder Frank Jones Jr.	United States	46.48	46.11	1:32.59
16	Larry Arbuthnot Doug Hansen	Canada	46.47	46.22	1:32.69
17	Robert Berkley Jr. Richard Cavanaugh	United States	46.58	46.59	1:33.17
18	Masako Eguchi Kazuaki Ichikawa	Japan	46.93	46.63	1:33.56
19	Stephen Marsh Jonnie Woodall	Great Britain	46.77	47.05	1:33.82
20	Michel de Carvalho Jeremy Palmer-Tomkinson	Great Britain	47.09	47.50	1:34.59

References

1. "The XI Olympic Winter Games Sapporo 1972" (PDF). Organizing Committee for the XIth Olympic Winter Games. LA84 Foundation. 1972. Retrieved 20 January 2014.
2. 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.
3. "Luge at the 1972 Sapporo Winter Games: Men's Doubles". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 4 April 2020.
4. 1972 Winter Olympics official report. p. 495. Accessed 7 November 2010. (in English and French)
5. 1976 Winter Olympics official report. Archived 26 February 2008 at the Wayback Machine pp. 144-5, 147, 149-51. Accessed 7 November 2010. (in English, French, and German)
6. FIL European Luge Championships Cesana 12 January 2008 men's doubles results. Accessed 7 November 2010.