Natalie Geisenberger refuses to call herself the best women's luge athlete ever.
The history books do that for her.
Germany has yet another Olympic gold medalist after Geisenberger prevailed in the women's luge final on Tuesday, her second consecutive title and one that added yet another page to her burgeoning résumé of accomplishments.
"The most of what you reach in sport is an Olympic gold medal," Geisenberger said.
And now, no luger has won more gold than Geisenberger. It's the third gold medal in her collection, the two singles wins now paired with a team relay win from the Sochi Games. That ties her with Georg Hackl and Felix Loch — both fellow Germans, of course — for the most in Olympic history.
She'll go for a fourth gold later this week in the team relay.
"For me, it was the most big goal or dream — I would say dream — that I wanted to reach," Geisenberger said.
Geisenberger's winning time for four runs at the Alpensia Sliding Center was 3 minutes, 5.232 seconds. German teammate Dajana Eitberger was second, nearly four-tenths of a second back. Alex Gough was third for Canada, giving that nation its long-awaited first Olympic luge medal.
For the Americans, it was a night that won't be forgotten, for an array of reasons. Erin Hamlin's long career ended with a sixth-place finish in her fourth Olympics, while Summer Britcher struggled and finished 19th and Emily Sweeney failed to finish at all after losing control of her sled on the final run. Sweeney avoided serious injury.
Hamlin was all smiles as she left, completely at ease at the end of a career that saw her win 23 World Cup medals on 12 different tracks, two world championships and Olympic bronze at Sochi in 2014. USA Luge picked Britcher — the track record-holder in Pyeongchang — for Thursday's team relay. That means Hamlin has competed internationally for the final time.
Dutch keep skating and winning
The Olympic Oval in Gangneung remained the House of Orange on Tuesday. The Dutch continued the complete domination of the speedskating events.
Kjeld Nuis made it four gold medals in four races for the Netherlands, a run nearly beyond belief, even for Nuis.
"This is no longer normal," Nuis said after winning the 1,500 meters.
Moving in a blur of orange early on with a blistering pace, Nuis swept past his toughest opponents. In second, of course, was another Dutchman, Patrick Roest.
With lots of Dutch fans in the crowd, the top two got big cheers in the victory ceremony. But the biggest roar of all at the 8,000-capacity oval was for Kim Min-seok, the 18-year-old home skater who took bronze.
American skaters disappointed again, with Joey Mantia finishing eighth and Shani Davis 19th, leaving the United States with another bad start in the Olympics after it was shut out in Sochi.
Etc.
• Arianna Fontana of Italy was declared winner of the short-track speedskating 500 meters by a photo finish, the Italian's sixth Olympic medal, equaling Wang Meng of China for most by a short-track skater. It was her first gold.
"I was chasing it, and I finally got it," she said.
Fontana claimed a medal at her fourth different Winter Games, joining Tania Vicent of Canada as the only female short-trackers to do so.
South Korean Choi Min-jeong was the other racer in the photo finish, but she was dropped from the podium when a penalty was enforced. Yara van Kerkhof of the Netherlands took silver and Kim Boutin of Canada the bronze.
American teenager Maame Biney, an Olympic rookie at 18, finished last in her quarterfinal after she was crowded out early in the race.
• With a triumphant hug and fist pump, Canada won the first-ever Olympic gold medal in curling mixed doubles, beating Switzerland 10-3 in front of a roaring crowd of jubilant Canadians in Gangneung.
The win over the defending world champions marked a historic moment for mixed doubles, which was making its Olympic debut at the Pyeongchang Games. Switzerland conceded the match early after falling too far behind, reaching out to shake their opponents' hands and prompting John Morris to hoist Canadian teammate Kaitlyn Lawes into the air with glee.
• Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo, a Norwegian, was favored to win the men's cross-country sprint classic, and he did. He felt he won twice, because being favored makes it twice as hard.
"To be able to win today and deal with pressure, it's a big victory in both ways," he said.
Frederico Pellegrino of Italy edged Russian Alexander Bolshunov in a photo finish to take silver.
• Five more cases of norovirus were reported, bringing the total confirmed cases to 199 since the beginning of the month. Of the new cases, two were in Pyeongchang and two in Gangneung.
