David Gleirscher (born 23 July 1994) is an Austrian

luge A luge is a small one- or two-person sled on which one sleds supine (face up) and feet-first. A luger steers by using the calf muscles to flex the sled's runners or by exerting opposite shoulder pressure to the seat. Racing sleds weigh for s ...

r. He competed for Austria in the 2015–16

Luge World Cup The Luge World Cup season is a yearly competition first organized by the International Luge Federation The International Luge Federation ( French: Fédération Internationale de Luge de Course (FIL); German: Internationaler Rennrodelverband) is ...

in the men's singles and finished tenth in the points standings. In men's luge at the

2018 Winter Olympics , nations = 93 , athletes = 2,922 (1,680 men and 1,242 women) , events = 102 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , opening = , closing = , opened_by = President Moon Jae-in , cauldron = Kim Yun-a , stadium = Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium , winte ...

he became a surprise champion after the favorite,

Felix Loch Felix Loch (; born 24 July 1989) is a German luger and Olympic champion. He has been competing since 1995 and on the German national team since 2006. He has won fourteen medals at the FIL World Luge Championships with twelve golds (Men's singles ...

, made a mistake in the last run and dropped out of the medals. Before the Olympic win, Gleirscher did not have a single World Cup podium appearance.

Family

David Gleirscher's father,

Gerhard Gerhard is a name of Germanic origin and may refer to: Given name * Gerhard (bishop of Passau) (fl. 932–946), German prelate * Gerhard III, Count of Holstein-Rendsburg (1292–1340), German prince, regent of Denmark * Gerhard Barkhorn (1919–19 ...

, was a luger who won three

world championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

medals, including both gold in the team event and a bronze in the men's single event in

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

. His father also competed in three

Winter Olympics The Winter Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'hiver) is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were h ...

, finish seventh in each Olympics (Singles:

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

; Doubles:

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

). His younger brother

Nico Gleirscher Nico Gleirscher (born 17 March 1997) is an Austrian luger. Career He started competing for the Austria national team in the various youth categories, finishing second overall in the Youth World Cup in 2013/14 and third in the Junior World Cup ...

is also a luger competing for Austria. Nico placed third in the sprint event at Winterberg during the 2017-18 Luge World Cup.

References

External links

* 1994 births Living people Austrian male lugers Olympic lugers for Austria Olympic gold medalists for Austria Olympic bronze medalists for Austria Olympic medalists in luge Lugers at the 2018 Winter Olympics Lugers at the 2022 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 2018 Winter Olympics People from Hall in Tirol Lugers at the 2012 Winter Youth Olympics Sportspeople from Tyrol (state) {{Austria-luge-bio-stub