Olympic Games 2018: David Gleirscher

Rodler David Gleirscher made the sensation perfect and raced to gold in the Olympic artificial track competition in Pyeongchang/Alpensia and thus Austria’s first medal in these games. The 23-year-old Olympic debutant from Tyrol made up two places on Saturday in the fourth and last run and relegated American Chris Mazdzer and German Johannes Ludwig to the places.

Gleirscher, whose so far best world cup ranking had been in fourth place, benefited not only from consistently strong performances but also from the mistakes of the competition in the finish. Both Mazdzer and Germany’s double Olympic champion Felix Loch, who was leading after three rounds, had to make do with fifth place.

Gleirscher also clearly outperformed the internal ÖRV competition: double world champion Wolfgang Kindl finished ninth, Reinhard Egger finished 15th.