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| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
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| Nationality | American | ||||||||||||||
| Born | November 14, 2001 | ||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||
| Sport | Luge | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Zachary DiGregorio (born November 14, 2001) is an American luger. He competed in the doubles event and in the team relay event at the 2022 Winter Olympics.
DiGregorio was born on November 14, 2001, and grew up in Medway, Massachusetts, where he has a large fanbase. [1] [2]
When DiGregorio was ten years old, his family attended the White Castle USA Luge Slider Search event, which was being held in the nearby town Carlisle. [3] "We got ice cream after and didn't think much of it at the time," he later said. [3] He was later invited to the Olympic training facility in Lake Placid, New York, as the luge scouts "liked his build, speed, and strength." [4] After tryouts there, DiGregorio was named to the U. S. Luge Junior Development Team. [4] He later made the U. S. Junior National Luge team. [4]
In the 2014–15 luge season, DiGregorio won a gold medal at the Norton Youth B National Championships. [1] In the following season, he placed fifth at the Norton Youth A National Championship games. [1] At the end of the 2016–17 season, he won the gold medal at the Norton Youth A National Championship. [1] In 2017–18, DiGregorio competed in the Junior World Championships and was the silver medalist at the national junior championships. [1]
DiGregorio competed at several international events in the 2018–19 season, coming in at 27th in the Junior World Championships in Austria, 10th in the singles race at the Winterberg, Germany Junior World Cup race, 13th at the Calgary, Canada singles Junior World Cup event and 6th in the singles event at the Junior World Cup in Park City, Utah. [1]
In 2019–20, DiGregorio won the silver medal at the US National Junior Championships and won silver in the first singles event at the Junior World Cup in Germany. In January 2020, he made his debut at the World Cup in Oberhof, Germany. [1]
In the fall of 2020, DiGregorio formed a doubles team with Sean Hollander. [1] "The junior World Cup circuit got shut down, and the senior World Cup circuit got reduced, so Sean Hollander, now my doubles partner, we decided to try and do doubles instead of one of us going to Europe and one of us staying home," he said. [3]
On January 7, 2022, DiGregorio and Hollander were named to the U. S. Olympic Team to participate at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China. [3] They competed at the doubles event, finishing in 11th place. [5] He also participated in the team relay event, finishing in 7th place out of 14 teams. [5]
Georg Hackl, often named Hackl Schorsch, is a German former luger who was three time Olympic and World Champion. He is known affectionately as Hackl-Schorsch or as the Speeding Weißwurst, a reference to what he looks like in his white bodysuit coming down the luge at fast speeds.
Wolfgang Linger is an Austrian former luger who competed internationally since 2000. As young children, he and his older brother Andreas learned to luge on a former Olympic luge track, and at age 14 began competing as a doubles team for the first time. Linger has won five medals at the FIL World Luge Championships with three golds and two bronzes. He also earned seven medals at the FIL European Luge Championships with a gold, three silvers, and three bronzes. The Lingers were overall Luge World Cup men's doubles champions in 2011-12 and scored 15 World Cup race victories. In 2005, he broke his leg in a crash, but the next year at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy won the gold medal in doubles luge. He repeated this feat at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, defeating another team of brothers, Andris and Juris Šics of Latvia.
Albert Mikhailovich Demchenko is a Russian luger who competed from 1992 to 2014. He is currently coaching the Russian luge team. His daughter Victoria Demchenko is also a luger.
Oswald Haselrieder OMRI is an Italian former luger who competed internationally from 1988 to 2010. He achieved success at junior level, taking two bronze medals in singles and a gold in doubles at the World Junior Championships, the latter achieved in partnership with Dietmar Pierhofer. Haselrider and Pierhofer continued to compete together until 1995, when they split up and Haselrieder joined forces with Gerhard Plankensteiner. Haselrieder went on to win the bronze medal in the men's doubles event at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin after competing in three previous Winter Olympic Games: in 1992 in the singles event and in doubles in 1998 and 2002. He went on to compete in a fifth Olympics in 2010: he retired soon afterwards after sustaining an injury in training in March of that year.
Kurt Brugger is an Italian luger and coach who competed from 1987 to 2003. Together with Wilfried Huber, he won the men's doubles event at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer. He competed in four Winter Olympics: 1988, 1992, 1994 and 1998.
Wilfried Huber is an Italian luger and coach who competed from 1985 to 2010. Together with Kurt Brugger, he won the men's doubles event at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer. He competed in both doubles and singles, but enjoyed his greatest success in doubles in partnership with Brugger. He made his debut in the Luge World Cup in 1986-87 season. He also took two medals at the World Junior Championships in Olang in 1988, a silver and a bronze. He competed in six Winter Olympics, in 1988, 1992, 1994, 1998, 2002 and 2006: he was aiming to compete at the 2010 Winter Olympics, however he was not selected by the Italian team's head coach Walter Plaikner, and retired at the end of the season.
Norbert Huber is an Italian former luger who competed from the early 1980s to the late 1990s.
Hansjörg Raffl is an Italian former luger who competed from the late 1970s to the mid-1990s. Competing in five Winter Olympics, he won two medals in the men's doubles event with a silver in 1994 and a bronze in 1992.
Manfred Schmid is an Austrian former luger who competed from the mid-1960s to the late 1970s. Competing in four Winter Olympics, he won two medals at Grenoble in 1968 with a gold in the men's singles event and a silver in the men's doubles event.
Paul Hildgartner is an Italian former luger who competed from the early 1970s to the late 1980s. Competing in five Winter Olympics, he earned two gold medals and one silver medal for his efforts. Hildgartner was the flag bearer for Italy in the 1984 Winter Olympics and the 1988 Winter Olympics opening ceremonies.
Mark Grimmette is an American luger who competed from 1990 to 2010. Competing in five Winter Olympics, he won two medals in the men's doubles event with a silver in 2002 and a bronze in 1998. He was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Shiva Keshavan, is a six-time Olympian and the first Indian representative to compete in luge at the Winter Olympic Games. He set a new Asian speed record at 134.3 km/h (83.5 mph) after beating the previous record of 131.9 km/h (82.0 mph) and won a gold medal in the 2011 Asian Luge Cup at Nagano in Japan.
Natalie Geisenberger is a German luger. Widely regarded as one of the greatest lugers of all time, she is a nine-time World champion and six-time Olympic champion.
Tristan Walker is a Canadian luger who has competed since 2008. He has three Luge World Cup doubles podium finishes and was 8th in men's doubles at Cesana in the 2011 World Championships.
Justin Snith is a Canadian luger who has competed since 2008. He has three Luge World Cup doubles podium finishes.
Tucker West is an American luger who, at the age of 18, was the youngest male ever to qualify to represent the United States in the men's luge at the Olympics. West placed 22nd in the men's single competition at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
Julia Taubitz is a German luger.
Natalie Corless is a Canadian luger.
Max Langenhan is a German luger who competes for the BRC 05 Friedrichroda club and German national team.
