Austria places hopes on sliding team to score gold at Olympics

Austria is well-known for its Alpine skiing but has never been able to really dominate the Winter Games. It's hoped this year, that could change. 

A near record number of Austrian athletes have qualified, hoping to surprise bookmakers by striking gold in sliding sports like luge and skeleton.

Despite lacking their own training site due to construction works at Innsbruck's ice track, Austria's best sliders say they're ready for the Olympics in Italy.

"I don't doubt that our country will be great at these Games," skeleton athlete Samuel Maier raved. 

"The Italians have a little home advantage," luger Wolfgang Kindl piped in "But I think we prepared really well."

A total of 115 Austrian athletes qualified for this year's Winter Olympics. After finishing seventh at the 2022 Games in Beijing, the winter sports powerhouse hopes for an even greater showing this time around.

"I'm 37 years old now so I'm one of the oldest," Kindl told CGTN. "I'm not the fastest on the start but I can have really great sliding." 

The single and double luger team won silver in Beijing - and is now aiming for gold. "I don't give up even if the young ones are coming and putting pressure on me."

Younger teammates like 25-year-old Lisa Schulte are also eager to show off their talents. But no matter the years of experience, the danger of the sport remains the same.

"We go down the track at 130 kilometers per hour with only a helmet," Schulte told CGTN. "It is a really dangerous sport and especially our head is really prone to injury."

All three sliding sports - luge, skeleton and bobsleigh - share the same track but differ in style and steering. Maier says he prefers skeleton because of better track visibility. 

"It's definitely sketchier to go head first but in my opinion I would never go down on a luge because I actually want to see what's ahead and with luge there's often times where you can't see anything."

The Innsbruck sliders are also hoping to benefit from a touch of home advantage, with Cortina less than a three-hour drive away and plenty of family and friends lining the ice track to cheer them on.