Latvian luger Kristers Aparjods secured fourth place on Sunday at the Winter Olympic Games in Cortina d’Ampezzo, narrowly missing out on a medal. Meanwhile, fellow Latvian Gints Bērziņš finished in tenth position.
The Olympic title was claimed by Germany’s Max Langenhan, with Austria’s Jonas Müller taking silver and Italy’s Dominik Fischnaller earning bronze.
Langenhan dominated all four runs and finished 0.596 seconds ahead of Müller and 0.934 seconds ahead of Fischnaller. Müller placed second in each of the four runs, while Fischnaller consistently held third place.
Aparjods finished 1.421 seconds behind the winner and was just 0.487 seconds short of the podium. He placed fourth in the first, second, and fourth runs, but a mistake at the start in the third run resulted in the seventh-fastest time — ultimately costing him a realistic shot at a medal.
Under Latvia’s regulations on financial rewards for outstanding sporting achievements, an athlete who finishes fourth at the Olympic Games receives approximately 30,700 euros.
Fifth place went to Austria’s Nico Gleirscher, who trailed Aparjods by 0.361 seconds,
while Germany’s Felix Loch finished sixth.
Bērziņš finished 2.852 seconds behind the champion in the combined standings. He was tenth after the first run, ninth in the next two runs and moved up to ninth overall, but a 17th-fastest time in the final run pushed him back to tenth place.
At the previous Winter Olympics in Beijing four years ago, Aparjods finished fifth and Bērziņš seventh.
In total, Latvia is represented at the 25th Winter Olympic Games by its largest delegation in history — 68 athletes competing across nine sports disciplines.
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