In some sports, the key to success is dedication and persistence. That’s certainly true of Austria’s Thomas Steu. Despite having competed in his first international luge tournament in 2011, he didn’t win his first major senior medal until 2017. Since then, he has begun to establish himself as one of the major names of luging, with six world and European championship medals and, in early 2020, his first gold. Having missed out on an Olympic medal by less than a second at the 2018 games, he’ll be looking to win one in 2022.
Steu was born in 1994 in Bludenz, Austria. He initially began competing in the luge singles, making top-20 finishes in both the European and World Junior Championships when he was just 16 years old. During the 2011/12 season, he raced in the doubles with Lorenz Koller for the first time, beginning a partnership that endures to this day. They had immediate success, winning bronze as part of the Austrian relay team at that season’s European Championships. At their final World Junior Championships in January 2014, they won their first gold medal in the doubles tournament.
Such success at senior level proved harder to find, but Steu and Koller kept competing and could always be found in the top ten or on the podium of individual World Cup races. Their heartbreak at losing out on Olympic bronze by less than a third of a second was tempered by their storming of the 2019 World Championships, where they took silver in the relay and bronze in the doubles and sprint. Steu’s career is clearly one coming into its full maturity.
