German · Munich, Germany · Born 5 February 1988German luger nicknamed the 'Queen of Luge,' the most decorated athlete in the sport's Olympic history, who won three consecutive singles gold medals across four Games spanning 12 years and motherhood.
Natalie Geisenberger was born on 5 February 1988 in Munich, Germany, and joined her local luge club in the Bavarian town of Miesbach at age 10. She won 14 Junior World Cup events and six Junior World Championship titles between 2004 and 2007, before making her Olympic debut at the 2010 Vancouver Games, winning bronze behind fellow German Tatjana Hüfner. After four consecutive seasons finishing runner-up to Hüfner in the World Cup, Geisenberger finally won her first overall title in 2012-13, then dominated the following season heading into the 2014 Sochi Olympics, winning seven of the season's first eight races. At Sochi, she became the only woman to break 50 seconds on each of her first three runs, winning gold in the singles and again in the mixed team relay. She defended both titles at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, becoming just the fourth woman in any sport to win three straight gold medals in an individual Winter Olympics event, after also successfully defending her singles crown. Geisenberger took the 2019-20 season off to give birth to her son Leo, then returned to win an eighth consecutive overall World Cup title just months later. At the 2022 Beijing Olympics, despite serious reservations about competing that led her to consider boycotting the Games in protest of pandemic conditions she had experienced at a prior test event, she won a third consecutive singles gold - becoming the first luger to win the event three times - plus a sixth team relay gold, taking her career total to seven Olympic medals, six of them gold, the most in luge history. She retired in September 2023 with nine World Championship titles and a record 52 World Cup victories, and has since worked as an Olympic broadcast expert.
Becoming the most decorated athlete in Olympic luge history, winning three consecutive singles gold medals across a career that spanned motherhood
How They Played
Technically flawless slider renowned for exceptional consistency across every run, rarely beaten on pure speed at the highest level of competition
Lasting Impact
Widely regarded as the greatest luger of all time, whose sustained dominance across four Olympic cycles, including a comeback from childbirth, redefined expectations for longevity in the sport
Career Honours
- 6x Olympic Gold Medalist - most in luge history
- First luger to win the same individual event 3 times (2014, 2018, 2022)
- 9x World Champion
- Record 52 career World Cup wins
German Athletes