It was not until 1955 that the first World Championship was organised, 41 years after the first European Championships. Nine years later, in 1964, luge made its Olympic debut at the Innsbruck Games, with a mixed event, a men’s event and a women’s event. The programme has not changed since then. Since 1976, this sport has taken place on the same track as bobsleigh.
The discipline was dominated by the East Germans, who won 15 of the 21 gold medals available between 1964 and 1988. One of the undisputed masters of luge is a German: Georg Hackl, who won gold three times consecutively, in 1992 in Albertville, 1994 in Lillehammer and 1998 in Nagano.