Venezuela at the 1998 Winter Olympics
The delegation consisted of a single luge competitor, Iginia Boccalandro.[5][6] Before the Games, the Salt Lake City, Utah resident claimed that "I'm too old and fat"; she said her real goal was the 2002 Winter Olympics, by which time she would have had enough training to be a contender.[10] After the first day of competition, she was in 28th place out of 29 competitors, with a time of 1 minute and 48.194 seconds.[13] Boccalandro's total time for her four runs was therefore 3 minutes and 39.317 seconds, putting her in 28th position.[8] The gold medal was won by Silke Kraushaar-Pielach of Germany in a time of 3 minutes and 23.779 seconds, the silver was taken by her compatriot Barbara Niedernhuber, and the bronze was won by Angelika Neuner of Austria.