WHISTLER, British Columbia, Feb. 16 (UPI) -- Tatjana Huefner continued the tradition of German domination in the luge Tuesday by winning the Olympic gold medal.
Huefner took the lead after the second run Monday and kept it through the third and fourth runs Tuesday. She turned in the fastest times on each of the last three runs, including a 41.617 to conclude the competition.
Nina Reithmayer of Austria finished second. Her times for the four runs added up to just .49 of a second slower than those of Huefner.
Another German, Natalie Geisenberger, finished third. Geisenberger had only the seventh fastest time in the final run and held on to the bronze medal position by a mere .07 of a second over Tatiana Ivanova of Russia.
It has been 30 years since a Russian woman has won an Olympic luge medal.
Huefner, who won the bronze in this event four years ago, extended the German winning streak in women's luge to four Olympics.
This was the 13th Olympics in which women have competed in the luge and German sliders have won the event nine times.
