German dominance, Italian excellence and American perseverance reverberated during the Olympics across the treed and snow-cloaked slopes that wrap the Utah Olympic Park luge track.

While Germany won five of nine medals awarded in the men's, women's and doubles competitions, Italy's Armin Zoeggeler succeeded Georg Hackl (GER) as king of the men's track and the United States of America saw its doubles teams win silver and bronze for the second consecutive Olympic Winter Games.

While Hackl saw his bid for a fourth consecutive gold medal lost in the spray of ice from Zoeggeler's speedy sled, the 35-year-old soldier from Berschtesgaden, whose name is synonymous with luge, made history by winning medals in five straight Games. Hackl's silver might not shine as brilliantly as the gold, but he recognized and admitted that his reign is over.

Zoeggeler left little doubt that he now is the man to beat on the luge track. The 28-year-old policeman from Voiana, Italy, set track records on three of his four runs down the 1,316-meter track that curves 15 times. Third at the 1994 Lillehammer Games and second at the 1998 Nagano Games, the three-time world champion never gave Hackl a chance for gold at the Salt Lake Games.

The men's singles competition also marked the stepping down of Austria's Markus Prock, a 10-time overall World Cup champion who long has slid in Hackl's considerable Olympic shadow. Twice -- at the 1992 Albertville Games and the 1994 Lillehammer Games -- Prock finished second to Hackl. At Salt Lake he was third, again trailing Hackl as well as Zoeggeler. Afterward, he said his career as a competitive slider is likely over.

As dominant as Zoeggeler was as an individual, Germany's women sliders were as dominant as a team. With finishes that mocked the rest of the sliding world, Sylke Otto, Barbara Niedernhuber and Silke Kraushaar extended their country's dominance in the sport. Their sweep of the women's luge medals stretched Germany's dominance of the event to 57 races -- World Cup, Olympic, World and European championships, Challenge cups and Two-Track European Championships -- dating to December 1997.

Factor in teams from the now-dissolved German Democratic Republic with today's unified Germany and the country has won a women's luge medal in every Olympic Winter Games dating to 1964 when the sport made its Olympic debut.

Germany also won the doubles competition behind the heavily decorated team of Patric-Fritz Leitner and Alex Resch, who overcame sluggish starts on both of their runs with masterful driving through the bottom stretches of the track to rout the competition.

While the Americans failed to capitalize on the Germans' slow starts, their perseverance paid off in silver and bronze finishes by Mark Grimmette and Brian Martin and Chris Thorpe and Clay Ives, respectively. Their medals marked the second consecutive Olympic Winter Games that Americans finished second and third in the doubles competition.

The USA performance extended beyond the medal stand, as the sliders not only doubled their overall Games medal haul but tied or set national bests for finishes in all three events. While Adam Heidt's fourth-place finish in men's singles was the country's best, eclipsing the fifth-place finish Wendel Suckow achieved at the Lillehammer Games, Becky Wilczak's fifth in the women's competition matched Cammy Myler's finish at the Albertville Games.

The five days of competition proved exceeding popular, as 69,547 fans lined the track -- at times 10 deep -- to cheer not only the home team but sliders from throughout the world. The average attendance of 13,909 is the largest ever for luge competitions at the Olympic Winter Games, according to the International Luge Federation.

--Kurt Repanshek