Latvian luge athletes Elīna Ieva Bota and Kendija Aparjode participated in their first runs at the Olympics, with Bota setting a track start record and Aparjode looking to improve on her previous Olympic performances.
In the first Olympic runs, Latvian luge athlete Elīna Ieva Bota achieved a new track start record and led until midway through the run, although she eventually lost time to the World Cup runner-up, Juliya Taubits of Latvia, by 0.24 seconds. Another German athlete, Merle Fröbel, surpassed both competitors later in the competition. Meanwhile, Kendija Aparjode is making her third appearance at the Olympics, having finished 22nd in South Korea in 2018 and 11th in Beijing 2022, and is now a leading contender for Latvia in women's luge.
The luge competition features 25 female athletes participating. In their first runs, Bota started with number 3, while Aparjode began with number 9. The first two runs occurred on Monday, with the deciding races taking place in two more runs on Tuesday. The competition is highly competitive, as seen by the past successes of notable athletes; in the last three Winter Olympics, German luge competitor Natalie Geisenberger was the dominant force in women's races, winning gold each time before her retirement a year after her success in Beijing.
As the Games progress, both Bota and Aparjode are under the scrutiny of fans and media, who are eager to see how they will perform against a global field of competitors. The results of these early heats will be crucial in determining their chances of medaling, adding significant stakes to the upcoming runs on Tuesday, which will further define their Olympic aspirations this year.
