Editing 1998 Winter Olympics (section)

===Luge===
{{main| Luge at the 1998 Winter Olympics}}
[[File:Rodel-Weltcup-2005-Oberhof-Hackl.jpg|thumb|[[Georg Hackl]], seen here during competition at [[Oberhof, Germany]] in 2005, won gold in the men's singles luge competition.]]
The [[luge]] competitions took place in [[Iizuna, Nagano]], at the [[Spiral (bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton)|Spiral]] (Nagano Bobsleigh-Luge Park), the first purpose-built permanent bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton track in [[Asia]]. In all, 24 nations took part in the luge events, with four countries, [[India at the 1998 Winter Olympics|India]], [[South Korea at the 1998 Winter Olympics|South Korea]], [[New Zealand at the 1998 Winter Olympics|New Zealand]], and [[Venezuela at the 1998 Winter Olympics|Venezuela]] making their Olympic debut in luge events. There were three events, men's single, women's single, and doubles. [[Germany at the 1998 Winter Olympics|Germany]] won all three gold medals, one silver, and one bronze. The [[United States at the 1998 Winter Olympics|United States]] won one silver and one bronze. [[Italy at the 1998 Winter Olympics|Italy]] and [[Austria at the 1998 Winter Olympics|Austria]] rounded out the medal table.

The first event with 24 lugers was the men's singles. Each athlete completed four runs over two days, 8 and 9 February. The [[Germany at the 1998 Winter Olympics|German]] athlete, [[Georg Hackl]], who had won gold at the [[1992 Winter Olympics]] and [[1994 Winter Olympics]], had entered the competition winless in the 1997–1998 season. Hackl raced in a newly designed luge and aerodynamic shoes. Several team protested but these protests were rejected. Hackl dominated all four races, and finished with a time of 3:18.436, half a second ahead of the [[Italy at the 1998 Winter Olympics|Italian]] [[Armin Zöggeler]]. Zöggeler finished .154 seconds ahead of [[Jens Müller (luger)|Jens Müller]] of Germany, who had won gold at the [[1988 Winter Olympics]] when he competed for [[East Germany]].

On 10 and 11 February, the women's singles event took place, with each athlete completing four runs. In all, 29 athletes took part. The race for gold was very tight between two [[Germany at the 1998 Winter Olympics|German]] athletes, [[Silke Kraushaar]] and [[Barbara Niedernhuber]], with Kraushaar winning by .002 seconds, with a total time of 3:23.779 – the smallest margin of victory ever at the Olympics. [[Angelika Neuner]] of [[Austria at the 1998 Winter Olympics|Austria]] won the bronze, 0.474 seconds behind the gold medalist.

The two-race doubles competition, which in theory were open to females, consisted of 17 male pairs. The event took place 13 February. The [[Germany at the 1998 Winter Olympics|Germans]] [[Stefan Krauße]] and [[Jan Behrendt]], who had competed together for 14 years, won the gold medal with a time of 1:41.105. Two [[United States at the 1998 Winter Olympics|American]] teams won silver and bronze, with [[Chris Thorpe]] and [[Gordy Sheer]] finishing .022 seconds behind the gold medalists and [[Brian Martin (luger)|Brian Martin]] and [[Mark Grimmette]] a further .09 seconds behind. The win by Krauße and Behrendt was their
four medal at the Olympics since they won silver at the [[1988 Winter Olympics]] when they competed for East Germany. This was the first time since the introduction of luge at the [[1964 Winter Olympics]] that athletes other than those from Austria, Germany, Italy, and the [[Soviet Union]] won medals.