By Oliver Trust
BERLIN, Feb. 6 (Xinhua) -- Luge is like driving a Formula-1 car, says the 2022 Beijing Games winner of the men's singles.
Johannes Ludwig would never compare himself with Lewis Hamilton or Max Verstappen as income, attention, and speed speak for entirely contrary worlds.
But his sport has a lot in common with the motor racing superstars, he is convinced. Like in the Formula 1 circus, driving talent doesn't inevitably make champions.
Both sports require the ability to develop a feeling for improvements of the driving machine and athletes need to supply feedback to the mechanics responsible for the fine-tunning.
Sportsmen like Ludwig and his car racing counterparts need to slip into the role of passionate inventors willing to invest hours of nerd-like investigation to find ways to continuously improve their equipment.
Always learn and adapt, seems his message.
Comparisons might continue when it comes to perseverance. For Ludwig, the gold medal at the 2022 Winter Olympics comes as the crowning of a career.
Setbacks and disappointment might made him doubting but never let his passion vanish for racing down an ice-packed canal.
"I ended up fourth so many times, and I was skeptical if I should continue," the 35-year-old said after finishing fourth at the World Championships on five occasions.
Ludwig may have won gold in 2018 in the team event, but never made it to the top in the singles. In Pyeongchang, he won the singles bronze medal.
Brushing aside all the talk about his advanced age, he decided to face another four years of intense training and take the last attempt at the Games in China.
"I stayed tuned despite all the ups and downs. I thought I was so near a lot of times. It gave me motivation and confidence to try once more," the German said. He admitted it always took several months to find the way back.
Now he can't believe having fulfilled his boldest dreams. Tears of joy were rolling down his cheeks when he spoke about difficult weeks behind him.
Painful long weeks, he couldn't see his wife and two kids and kept a self-imposed quarantine to address strict safety rules.
"As many I invested a lot to experience the dream of Olympic Games," he said.
He stuck to his general principles, as he says "to take every day as a new race and preserve my passion and aggressiveness."
After his singles achievement, the upcoming team event this week might turn into an emotional challenge for him.
"Yes, I just thought about what is still to come at the 2022 Games for me and my teammates," he said with a wink in his eye.
But concentration will soon be back for the team-player Ludwig after he has talked to his loved ones back in Germany.
When competing, Ludwig might be an individual sportsman, but he never made a secret out of him regarding luge as a team-sports.
"No athlete in my sport can win on his own; we need a team behind us. My team made me win the gold medal, my coaches, my engineers, and my family. I am so very grateful," he said. ■
