German Felix Loch is well on his way to his third consecutive Olympic gold medal in the men’s singles luge. After the first two runs, Loch (1:35.299) holds a 0.188-second lead over David Gleirscher of Austria. Roman Repilov, an Olympic Athlete from Russia, finished the day in third.
Meanwhile, American Chris Mazdzer finished the day in striking distance of a medal. After the first two runs he was in fourth place, just 0.001 second out of third.
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Tucker West and Taylor Morris of Team USA ended day one of competition in 18th and 23rd, respectively.
All 40 athletes completed two runs on Saturday. The event will conclude on Sunday with runs 3 and 4, when the athlete with the lowest cumulative time after all four runs will win gold. You can watch the live stream of the final two runs on February 11, starting at 6 a.m. ET.
Loch is sliding for his third-straight gold medal in men’s singles. He won in 2010 at the age of 20 and defended his title in Sochi. He won his third gold in 2014 in the inaugural team relay event. If he’s able to hold on to his lead and win his fourth gold, he’ll be favored to win his fifth gold in the relay. Gleirscher bested Loch on Run 1, but Loch’s second run vaulted him into the lead -- where he’s likely to stay.
Mazdzer was in fifth place after putting together a fantastic run in his first trip down the hill. He improved on his second run down the hill to jump into fourth place. If he can improve to third on Sunday, he would match Erin Hamlin's medal from four years ago -- which was the first singlse luge medal in U.S. history.
The other Americans had mixed results on the day. West, who got his start in luge in his backyard, struggled in his first run, bouncing off the wall on Turn 9. He rebounded on his second run to finish the day in TK. Morris, meanwhile, had a solid first run before struggling on Turn 9 on his second run.