Sylke Otto (born 7 July 1969 in

Karl-Marx-Stadt Chemnitz (; from 1953 to 1990: Karl-Marx-Stadt , ) is the third-largest city in the German state of Saxony after Leipzig and Dresden. It is the 28th largest city of Germany as well as the fourth largest city in the area of former East Germany ...

) is a former

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

luger who competed from 1991 to 2007. Competing 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 ...

, she won the gold medal in the women's singles event in 2002 and 2006. Otto won twelve medals at the

FIL World Luge Championships The FIL World Luge Championships, part of the International Luge Federation (FIL) have taken place on an almost annual basis in non-Winter Olympics years since 1955. These championships are shown for artificial tracks. See FIL World Luge Natural ...

with six golds (Women's singles:

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

, 2001, 2003, 2005; Mixed team: 2003, 2005), three silvers (Mixed team:

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 ...

, 2000, 2001), and three bronzes (Women's singles:

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

, 2004; Mixed team: 1999). She also won eight medals at the

FIL European Luge Championships The FIL European Luge Championships, part of the International Luge Federation (FIL) have taken place since 1914. From 1914 to 1934, these championships were part of the Internationaler Schlittensportsverband (ISSV - International Sled Sport Federat ...

with five golds (Women's singles:

, 2002; Mixed team:

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of humanity on Earth, astrophysicist ...

, 1992, 2000), two silvers (Women's singles: 1992, Mixed team: 2002), and one bronze (Women's singles: 2004). Otto finished in the top three of the

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 ...

standings every year from 1999 to 2006, winning the overall title four times (1994-5, 1999–2000, 2002-3, 2003-4). She won a record 37 World Cup races in total during her career.

Retirement

She retired from the sport on 12 January 2007 due to pregnancy. It was also due to a crash suffered at

Königssee The Königssee is a natural lake in the extreme southeast Berchtesgadener Land district of the German state of Bavaria, near the Austrian border. Most of the lake is within the Berchtesgaden National Park. Description Situated within the Berch ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

the previous week followed by watching the crash of

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

Albert Demtschenko Albert Mikhailovich Demchenko (russian: Альберт Михайлович Демченко; born 27 November 1971) is a Russian luger who competed from 1992 to 2014. He is currently coaching the Russian luge team. His daughter Victoria Demche ...

at Oberhof,

that same week. Otto had initially planned on retiring at the World Luge Championships in

Igls Innsbruck (; bar, Innschbruck, label=Austro-Bavarian ) is the capital of Tyrol and the fifth-largest city in Austria. On the River Inn, at its junction with the Wipp Valley, which provides access to the Brenner Pass to the south, it had a po ...

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(Located southeast of Innsbruck) in February, but her and Demtschenko's accident changed that. She has one daughter Sina born on 29 May 2007. A retirement ceremony for Otto took place prior to the start of the women's singles event at the 2008 FIL World Luge Championships in

Oberhof, Germany Oberhof is a town in the Schmalkalden-Meiningen district of Thuringia, Germany. Located in the Thuringian Forest mountain range, it is a winter sports center and health resort. With 1,625 inhabitants (December 2016), it is visited by 144,000 tour ...

on 25 January.

Other information

Otto was one of the torch bearers for the 2004 Summer Olympics in

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

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as it traveled through

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

, Germany.

References

FIL-Luge profile
- Accessed January 24, 2008. *[http://www.fil-luge.org/news/news-detail/article/olympic-flame-in-germany.html?tx_ttnews%5BpS%5D=1088632800&tx_ttnews%5BpL%5D=2678399&tx_ttnews%5Barc%5D=1&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=157&cHash=e3bde8d5c2 FIL-Luge.org 2 July 2004 article on Otto's torch carrying in Berlin prior to the 2004 Summer Olympics.] - accessed March 7, 2008.
Fuzilogik Sports - Winter Olympic results - Women's lugeHickoksports.com results on Olympic champions in luge and skelton.Hickok sports information on World champions in luge and skeleton.

* ttp://www.nbcolympics.com/athletes/5058278/detail.html?ib_oll=Headline NBC biographybr>Official website

SportQuick.com information on World champions in luge.

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Otto, Sylke 1969 births Living people German female lugers Olympic lugers of Germany Olympic gold medalists for Germany Olympic medalists in luge Lugers at the 1992 Winter Olympics Lugers at the 2002 Winter Olympics Lugers at the 2006 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 2002 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 2006 Winter Olympics Sportspeople from Chemnitz