All that stood between Germany's luge team and a 2022 Winter Olympics gold medal sweep was "The Dragon's tail."
That's what curve 13 on the luge track in Beijing has been dubbed after causing multiple Olympians to lose control as they approached the track's finish line. Germany, however, overcame a somewhat bumpy final stretch to narrowly edge Austria by 0.08 seconds and win the team relay.
The victory gave Germany the sweep in the four luge events at the 2022 Games, with the country having won 38 of a possible 52 gold medals overall in the the history of the sport at the Winter Games.
The team of women's singles winner Natalie Geisenberger, men's singles winner Johannes Ludwig, and doubles winners Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt finished with a time of 3:03.406, giving Germany its third consecutive gold medal in the event since its debut at the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
Feeling out of the loop? We'll catch you up on the Chicago news you need to know. Sign up for the weekly Chicago Catch-Up newsletter here.
Austria's Madeleine Egle, Wolfgang Kindl, Lorenz Koller and Thomas Steu took silver.
Latvia's Kristers Aparjods, Martins Bots, Roberts Plume and Eliza Tiruma won bronze, finishing 0.948 seconds behind Germany.
The U.S. team of Zachary Di Gregorio, Ashley Farquharson, Sean Hollander and Chris Mazdzer finished seventh (+2.335).
