Felix Loch has done a Devon Loch.
German Felix Loch has dominated the men's downhill luge at the Winter Olympics, and had won the Olympic gold on both of his previous attempts. Today in PyeongChang, he was going for a third straight gold medal, and would become only the second man in history to do so.
He was all set to create history ahead of his final run, as his medal rivals promised little. American Chris Mazdzer came into the Olympics in shocking form, finishing 18th in the overall World Cup standings and admitting that his form had deserted him. Austrian David Gleirscher only just made it onto the Austrian Olympic team, and had never won a medal at a World Cup event before, his best-ever finish never higher than fourth.
A clean run for Loch almost guaranteed a medal, and yet, amazingly, he made a slight but hugely significant error that saw him slump to fifth in the overall standings. Gleirscher won Austria's first gold medal at the luge in fifty years, while Mazdzer took the silver medal.
Here's Loch's final, disastrous run:
Afterward, Amy Williams broke down his error for the BBC.
Astonishing.
