Russian lugers have problems competing with the world-leading Germans because the country is technologically backward, two-time European champion Albert Demchenko said Tuesday.
German athletes won gold in three of the four events at the World Championships earlier this month, and five of the nine available medals at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. Russia's lugers left Vancouver empty-handed.
“The Germans’ leadership in luge will end when we have renovated all the children’s sport academies, then we’ll have strength in depth,” said Demchenko, who won one of two gold medals for Russian at the 2010 European Championships, the country's last major success.
The veteran slider, 40, lamented the lack of youth infrastructure in luge and "technological backwardness," which he likened to the failure of a Russian space probe named Phobos-Grunt, which crashed shortly after take-off in January.
“Plus the technological backwardness, but I can’t answer here for our country’s industry, which can’t even build spaceships that don’t crash, so what can I say about luge?”
Demchenko also came second in the men’s singles at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, and won gold in the World Cup in 2005 and in the European Championships in 2006.
He finished runner-up to German athlete Felix Loch at the 2011 World Championships earlier this month, held on Loch’s home track at Altenberg.
Last month, Russian luge coach Valery Silakov accused German sliders of "getting around the rules" with the help of a compatriot-friendly international federation that is reluctant to investigate suspicious practices.
“The Germans dominate, in all the [inspection] commissions they are getting around the rules a bit,” Silakov said.
The German luge federation categorically rejected Silakov’s claims.
