Zoggeler, Armin

▪ 2002

      After having closed out the 2000 international luge racing season with victories in three of the final four events and clinching the year's World Cup overall luge championship, Armin Zöggeler of Italy barely skipped a beat to kick off the 2001 season. Zöggeler defeated defending Olympic champion Georg Hackl of Germany in the two-track European championships in January. He finished third in a subsequent race in Austria but returned to the top of the medalists' podium in Altenberg, Ger., by posting a time of 1 min 49.685 sec. In early February the luge circuit moved on to Nagano, Japan, where Zöggeler finished second behind Germany's Wilfried Huber. Two weeks later, in Park City, Utah, Zöggeler was victorious once again as he recorded the year's fastest time, 1 min 29.391 sec.

      Zöggeler capped off a tremendous 2001 season in Calgary, Alta., by capturing his third world championship with a time of 1 min 30.139 sec. In the process, he again defeated Hackl as well as nine-time overall World Cup champion Markus Prock, who placed second and third, respectively. Zöggeler also led his Italian squad to a fourth-place finish in the team event in Calgary.

      Zöggeler was born on Jan. 4, 1974, in Merano, in Italy's South Tirol region. He broke onto the luge racing scene as a 15-year-old in 1989; his 14th-place finish in an international competition was a sure sign of things to come. He joined the Italian national team that year. In 1994, competing as a 20-year-old in the Lillehammer (Nor.) Olympic Games, he finished third behind Hackl and Prock. In 1995 he returned to Lillehammer and captured his first world championship and took second place in the overall World Cup standings. In 1997 he moved his performances up a notch and was able to claim the World Cup title. One year later, in the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, he lost to Hackl and took the silver medal. Later that year Zöggeler's Italian team won the silver in the European championships in Oberhof, Ger. From that point on, Zöggeler dominated the world luging scene. In 1999 he captured five of the seven races he entered on his way to taking his second World Cup championship.

      By the close of the 2001 season, Zöggeler, who lived and trained in Völlan, Italy, where he supported himself and his family by working as a police officer, was looking to the future. With silver and bronze medals already in his Olympic collection, he vowed to go for the gold in the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Bill Bradley

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