Winter Youth Olympic Games: Georgian luger among top 15

The Winter Youth Olympic Games are in full swing in Lillehammer, Norway, where Georgia has celebrated its first success.

Georgian luger Lasha Peradze - who yesterday competed injured with damaged cartilage between his ribs - took painkillers before approaching the track but gained 11th place and became the youngest athlete to make it into the top 15 of the Men’s Single event.

The first thing Peradze, 15, did after the results came out was to phone his father back in Georgia and let him know the news.

"He called me and said "daddy, I performed really well”, but before that, in the same morning he called me and said he might not compete at all because he was in so much pain,” Lasha’s father Valeri Peradze told Agenda.ge today from his native Bakuriani, Georgia’s popular winter resort.

The young athlete was injured in Latvia where he won the country’s top luge event – the Cup of Latvia on January 31.

Eleventh place at the Youth Olympics was an unexpectedly good result for the young Georgian athlete and the news brought much joy to his home town Bakuriani.

Peradze, whose hero is Nodar Kumaritashvili, the Georgian Olympic luger who died in a tragic incident at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, was in Norway with his trainer Felix Kumaritashvili. The same man trained France’s national team several years ago.

• Nodar Kumaritashvili, athlete who changed the luge sliding sport forever

Georgia was represented at Lillehammer 2016 by two athletes, the other was skier Besarion Japaridze. He is participating in two disciplines and will compete tomorrow and on February 19.