At the Winter Games in Beijing, the Tyrolean, who was just behind top favorite Johannes Ludwig after the first two races on Saturday, didn’t make any mistakes in the third and fourth round either and finally had to admit defeat to the German by just 0.160 seconds.
Bronze winner Dominik Fischnaller from South Tyrol already had a respectable distance of 0.951 seconds on Ludwig.
The 33-year-old Kindl crowned his good season with a brilliant performance on the 1.5 km long course, in which he became European Champion and finished second in the overall World Cup – also behind season dominator Ludwig. The third run, in which Ludwig extended his lead over Kindl from 0.039 seconds to 0.113 seconds, proved to be decisive in the battle for gold and silver. The double world champion from 2017 could no longer catch up in the final round, but it was enough to climb onto the Olympic podium for the first time – after three ninth places in 2010 in Vancouver, 2014 in Sochi and 2018 in Pyeongchang.
Austria’s lugers remain one of the most important suppliers of medals at the Olympic Games. Including Kindl’s silver, the skid artists have won six gold medals, nine silver and eight bronze at the Winter Games in tobogganing. More could be added in Beijing: Madeleine Egle in the women (Monday/Tuesday), the doubles Thomas Steu/Lorenz Koller (Wednesday) and the team relay (Thursday) can speculate with precious metal.
The other Austrians had nothing to do with the decision. Pyeongchang Olympic champion David Gleischer had to be satisfied with 15th place (+4.437), his brother Nico Gleirscher gradually improved after 27th place in the first run and finished his first Olympic Games in 12th place (+3.548).
Source: Nachrichten
