Olympics 2026: Max Langenhan Wins Luge Gold – Germany

The first award ceremony of these Olympic Games, at which the German national anthem was played, had the improvised charm of a topping-out ceremony. On the construction site behind the starting curve at the new toboggan run in Cortina d’Ampezzo, the German Max Langenhan, the Austrian Jonas Müller and the Italian Dominik Filehner lined up: the medal winners in men’s tobogganing.

The audience stood tightly packed in the slush and mud, their cell phones out, very close to the heroes. Athletes you can touch, these tobogganers. And men with hearts, as you could tell from the tears Langenhan shed.

On the sleigh, on the train, the 26-year-old acted as cool as an ice king. With four track records in four runs, the 2025 world champion raced towards the greatest success of his career in the Olympic competition in his own league – even though he suffered a stiff neck the day before the first two runs. Extensive massages persuaded him not to forego his participation in the Olympics.

During the competition there was no sign that Langenhan was handicapped in any way. Müller from Thuringia took second place with a lead of 0.596 seconds. Third came Filehner, who had a safety margin of almost one second (+0.934).

The two-time Olympic champion Felix Loch, who actually wanted to build on his glory days in Vancouver and Sochi in Cortina, took 6th place in the final rankings (+1.860) after a weak first day and a better second day by his standards. “Viva la Vida” played the toboggan direction when all the rides were completed. It seemed as if this eternally young Coldplay hit from 2008 was dedicated to Loch, as the piece is about a king who has abdicated: “I used to rule the world”.

The new ruler of the single-seater is Max Langenhan, who can now boast a double gold-plated toboggan diploma as a world champion and Olympic champion. “What Max did here over the two days was simply sensational,” said Loch, praising his teammate highly. The 36-year-old was already ready at the finish line when the ten-year-old man completed his last run and, with a deep bow, indicated the doffing of an imaginary hat.

Loch, who was world champion for the first time in 2008, could not be satisfied with himself: “Somehow there was a worm in here,” he said, summing up his mistaken rides. Timon Grancagnolo, who was only 22 years old, was very happy with his Olympic debut. The man from Chemnitz finished ninth, 2.301 seconds behind and was particularly impressed by the atmosphere in Cortina.

The spectators were standing close to the track and in a long left-hand bend he even saw from the corner of his eye that they were doing a “La Ola” for him. He almost waved back – which of course was just a joke. Grancagnolo said about his crowned teammate: “Max is a total athlete – and always relaxed.”

Georg Hackl, who has been working for the Austrian association for several years, was lucky in misfortune. As an observer during the women’s training session, Hackl got into a gap on a footbridge on the edge of the Olympic track and fell into a shaft almost two meters deep. He got off lightly with a dislocated shoulder. Not everything that glitters in the dark is gold, and the toboggan run in Cortina, which was completed in record time, has its pitfalls – especially next to it.

Max Langenhan, on the other hand, was just happy. With a German flag hanging around his neck, he bowed to the many celebrating fans on the construction site, kissed his girlfriend Susanne, and even at the moment of his triumph, he thought about how many people were involved in enabling him to become an Olympic champion. “I am grateful for every person I was able to get to know along the way,” he said: “At the end I can hang the medal on my neck, but actually 300 people should get a medal like this because they are all part of the bigger picture.”