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A little more than a month after winning their third consecutive Olympic medal, the Austrian brothers Andreas and Wolfgang Linger announced their retirement from racing.
Tuesday 1 April 2014 3 minutes reading time
The couple most successful ever sledging white-red concludes therefore an enviable career characterized by a lot of satisfaction, especially in big events. The two brothers Tyrolean have in fact won two Olympic gold medals (Torino 2006 and Vancouver 2010), three World Championship titles (2003, 2011 and 2012) and one European championship (2010). In the World Cup Linger-Linger have won proportionately less, raising to heaven anyway the Crystal Ball in 2011-2012, therefore completing the grand slam of success possible in the world of luge.
In the last two seasons the Austrian association has been strong competition especially from the German Bavarian Wendl-Artl but nevertheless came back two other major medals: bronze at the World Championships and silver Whistler Olympic Sochi. This satisfaction has allowed the two brothers white-red to carve out a space in the history of this specialty performance behind the Germans Krausse-Behrendt (2 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze) in second place all time among more than double always winning at the Olympics.
"We both have a family that is waiting for us at home. It's not easy to manage a family and at the same time to stand around for months during the winter, "said Wolfgang Linger during the farewell press conference that was held in Vienna." "At the moment we lack the right motivation to keep going and when you get to this point means that you have to say enough is enough," added Andreas Linger.
The withdrawal of the Austrian couple is the second major abandonment of the sled in the world after that of Latvian Martins Rubenis.
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