The three-time Olympic gold medallist Georg Hackl has spoken out against plans to extend the sledding competitions at winter games to include the women’s two-seater.
“This is a great challenge for the ladies with the corresponding starting height. Cross-nationally, the basis for this is missing. One cannot force such a development within a few years and simply stipulate that there must be a two-seater for the ladies in Beijing in 2022,”Hackl told the news portal t-online. de.
With regard to the Winter Games in four years’ time, the International Olympic Committee is making efforts to organise the same competitions for women as for men. Hackl, who is the coach of the successful German luge team in Pyeongchang, warns:”This discipline must first be established. The double-seater is more difficult to control than the single-seater, the risk of falling is much higher.”
In addition, the sprint races that have already taken place in the World Cup and World Championships are also eligible for inclusion in the Olympic programme. Georg Hackl, who continues to be the most successful luge athlete in Olympic history after Pyeongchang, has no sympathy with this either:”The format could be attractive, but in its current form it is not thought through to the end. In my opinion, it is incomprehensible that time is measured from the middle of the track”, criticized the Berchtesgadener.
Hackl therefore suggests:”A start is part of the basic understanding of a sprint. It would make more sense to measure the time from the start and just set the target a little higher.”