David Gleirscher Wiki: Athlete, Net Worth, Gold Medal & Facts To Know

David Gleirscher was born in 1994. He is a famous Austrian luger who shot to fame after competing for Austria in the 2015-16 Luge World Cup in the men's singles. He finished tenth in the points standings at the 2015-16 Luge World Cup. In men's luge at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games, he became a surprising champion after the favorite, Felix Loch, made a mistake in the last run and had to drop out of the medals. Prior to the Olympic win, Gleirscher did not have a single World Cup podium appearance. Gleirscher' father, Gerhard was a luger too who had won three World Championship medals, including a gold in team pursuit and a bronze medal in the men's single event in 1997. Gleirscher's father has also competed in three Winter Olympics in his career and he managed to finish seventh in each Olympics; 1994, 1998 in singles and for doubles in 1992. Gleirscher's younger brother, Nico Gleirscher is also a luger who competes for Austria. He was placed third in the sprint event at Winterberg during the 2017-18 Luge World Cup. David Gleirscher states his hobbies to be football and travelling. He is a police officer and an athlete by profession. Gleirscher can speak only German fluently. He has trained under Coach Rene Friedl on the National level and Thorsten Flath in the country level. To win a medal at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games was his ambition as stated by him before the game and he did himself and his country proud by fulfilling his ambition.

The net worth of the athlete is currently under review.

In Pyeongchang, South Korea during the 2018 Olympic Winter Games, David Gleirscher had to struggle a lot to make Austria's Olympic team. Chris Mazder's performance hit rock bottom. But externally, the Austrian team displayed fierce motivation and will power. They stood higher than all atop the men's luge podium during the Olympic games as Germany's Felix Loch's reign as the Olympic champion came to a crashing and sudden end. Gleirscher was the surprise first-run leader and also a bigger surprise as the leader came when it all finally got over. He not only finished his four runs at the Alpensia Sliding Center in 3 minutes, 10.702 seconds for the gold but also became Austria's first gold medalist in men's luge in 50 years. "I knew I was fast," Gleirscher said. "I didn't know I was that fast." Mazdzer had made history for the U.S., by giving the Americans their first men's singles medal by finishing second in 3:10.728. Germany's Johannes Ludwig took third in 3:10.932. "I knew I could do it," Mazdzer said. "It was a blast. It didn't feel as crazy as it probably looked. But I felt in control and yeah, it was amazing." Loch was supposed to be a lock, the one who would tie with Georg Hackl's record as only the second person to win Olympic luge gold three consecutive times. But his reign came to a sad end at the end of the fall, when he skidded during his final run and lost a ton of time in an instant. He crossed the finish line fifth, sitting for several seconds on his sled in disbelief and frustration as Gleirscher celebrated his upset win. It was very upsettingly surprising because Gleirscher had zero World Cup Medals and had never even finished better than the fourth. On the biggest stage, Gleirscher delivered the race of his life. "I can hardly explain it," Gleirscher said. Mazdzer came fourth after the first two heats on Saturday, and was a mere one-thousandth of a second away from a medal spot. Knowing the opportunity was there for the taking, Mazder threw down a track-record time in his third heat — by jumping from fourth to second and closing the gap on Loch. In his final run, Mazdzer crossed the line aware that he clinched a medal. The only question in his mind was whether it would be silver or bronze medal. Loch was the only slider left, and his skid had sealed the outcome. "The result of today, no one would have expected that," Ludwig said. "Felix has shown he's the man. He's a great athlete. He's always the favorite. But Felix is also human. He makes mistakes." Mazdzer finished 13th in his Olympic debut in 2010, and 13th again at the Sochi Games four years ago and came into the Pyeongchang Olympics after a less-than-scintillating 18th-place showing in this season's overall World Cup standings. He said three weeks ago that he never felt worse about where he was on the sled, but vowed to find his way again. "Medal or nothing," Mazdzer said and he finally proved himself right.

David Gleirscher is available on Instagram @gleirscher. One can find some of his personal photos and photos from his competitions on his Instagram page.