United States

Mortensen, Terdiman Fall Short, Germany Dominates Men's Doubles Luge

Justin Krewson and Andrew Sherk finished eighth as the top American sled. Matthew Mortensen and Jayson Terdiman, the American team that was expected to be the top squad for Team USA, finished 10th

German dominance is alive and well in the luge. Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt made sure of that. They defended their Olymipc gold medal from 2014 with another dominant performance in doubles luge, taking the title in 1:31.697, besting second place by 0.088 seconds.

That silver-medal team consisted of Pegter Penz and Georg Fischler of Austria. Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken of Germany won bronze. Even after Felix Loch faltered in the men’s singles luge final run, with two medals here, Germany has won gold in two of three events and five medals in total.

Justin Krewson and Andrew Sherk finished eighth as the top American sled. Matthew Mortensen and Jayson Terdiman, the American team that was expected to be the top squad for Team USA, finished 10th.

Wendl and Arlt came out of the gates on fire, breaking both the course start record and the course record on their first run. They slid through the ninth turn -- which has wreaked havoc on lugers through the Games – without trouble and finished in 45.820, establishing a 0.071-second lead over the Austrian sled of Penz and Fischler. They were able to hold off the Austrian team on the final run to lead the Germans to two sets of medals.

The Americans Mortensen and Terdiman’s put together a solid, if not spectacular, first run, putting themselves into sixth place, 0.313 seconds out of medal position. Krewson and Sherk weren’t far behind in seventh. Neither team was able to put together enough on the second run to jump into medal position. Moertensen and Terdiman faltered coming out of the 13th turn and fell into 10th place.

The final luge competition will take place on Feb. 15 at 7:30 a.m. ET with the luge team relay, which consists of a men’s single sled, a women’s single sled, and a doubles sled.

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