Luge at the 1972 Winter Olympics

The 1972 Winter Olympic Games Luge results

Men's singles

Medal	Athlete	Time
Gold	Wolfgang Scheidel (GDR)	3:27.58
Silver	Harald Ehrig (GDR)	3:28.39
Bronze	Wolfram Fiedler (GDR)	3:28.73

Doubles

Medal	Athlete	Time
Gold	Horst Hörnlein, Reinhard Bredow (GDR)	1:28.35
Gold	Paul Hildgartner, Walter Plaikner (ITA)	1:28.35
Bronze	Klaus Bonsack, Wolfram Fiedler (GDR)	1:29.16

A malfunctioning starting gate cancelled the results of the first run. Italy, whose doubles team of Paul Hildgartner and Walter Plaikner won the first run, protested to event officials the results should stand since all contestants had suffered equally, but to no avail. After the protest was denied, a rerun was ordered. Hildgartner and Plaikner won the first run of the rerun event while the East German team of Horst Hörnlein and Reinhard Bredow had the fastest second run. The combined times were equal for the only time in Winter Olympic luge history. The International Luge Federation consulted with IOC President Avery Brundage on this matter, and gold medals were awarded to both teams as a result. By the time of the 1976 Winter Olympics, artificial track luge would be timed in thousandths of a second (0.001) rather than hundredths of a second (0.01) in an effort to avoid ties. That would prove effective until the FIL European Luge Championships 2008 at Cesana, when another tie occurred. This tie was again in the men's doubles event and it again involved Italy and Germany (East and West Germany reunified in 1990) only this time it was for a bronze medal rather than gold.

Women's singles

Medal	Athlete	Time
Gold	Anna-Maria Müller (GDR)	2:59.18
Silver	Ute Rührold (GDR)	2:59.49
Bronze	Margit Schumann (GDR)	2:59.54

Medal table

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	East Germany (GDR)	3	2	3	8
2	Italy (ITA)	1	0	0	1

References

• 1972 luge men's singles results
• 1972 luge men's doubles results
• 1972 luge women's singles results