PARK CITY, Utah ? Olympic rookies Patric Leitner and Alexander Resch of Germany won the gold medal in luge doubles on Friday, just ahead of the two American sleds as the United States won two medals in the event for the second straight time.
Leitner and Resch finished the two-heat race in 1 minute, 26.082 seconds. Mark Grimmette of Muskegon, Mich. and Brian Martin of Palo Alto, Calif., won silver in 1:26.216. Chris Thorpe, of Marquette, Mich. and Clay Ives of Bancroft, Ontario won the bronze in 1:26.220.
Thorpe is only the second slider to win Olympic medals with different partners. He won at Nagano with Gordie Sheer, who retired two years ago. Klaus Bonsack of Germany won gold at Grenoble in 1968 with Thomas Kohler and bronze at Sapporo in 1972 with Wolfram Fiedler.
For the United States, it was their second 2-3 Olympic finish in doubles. The U.S. still has not won a singles medal. Adam Heidt's fourth-place finish in men's singles on Monday is the team's highest finish.
Leitner and Resch, two-time world champions, carried on the rich legacy of the German luge team. Since luge was added to the Winter Olympics in 1964, the Germans have won nine of the 11 doubles gold medals.
Grimmette and Martin seemed destined for their second straight bronze but edged their teammates by just .004 of a second when Thorpe and Ives made a mistake near the end of their second run.
For Thorpe, it was the end of a memorable career that began in 1984 and ended with his fourth Olympic appearance. He is retiring and his wife Kriste is expecting a baby in March.
It also was a sweet moment for Ives, who quit the Canadian Olympic team because of a lack of funding after the Nagano Olympics and hooked up with Thorpe after Sheer retired in 2000.
The two had struggled mightily, and Thorpe never quite found the chemistry he had shared with Sheer. The only other time Ives had stood on a podium was in the World Cup finale at Winterberg three weeks ago, when he and Thorpe took silver.
A crowd of over 10,000 braved the frigid morning at Bear Hollow, warmed only slightly by the bright sunshine. Fans standing near the finish line were wearing aluminum foil luge sled hats and cheering the United States teams with the familiar chant of 'U-S-A! U-S-A!'
There was much to cheer. After the first heat, the race for the podium was between the top four sleds. The Germans broke the track record that Thorpe and Ives had set only moments earlier with a first-run time of 42.953 seconds.
The lead was a slim .060 of a second. One small mistake was all it would take, but the Germans, sliding last, were nearly flawless. It was Ives and Thorpe who made the mistake, losing speed in the final turns and losing the silver.