CESANA, Italy - Courtney Zablocki glanced up at the awards platform, where three Germans were lined up shoulder to shoulder, celebrating their latest haul of Olympic medals.

Zablocki couldn’t bear the painful, familiar sight.

“So close,” she said, biting her upper lip. “It’s very hard.”

High in the Italian Alps, Zablocki brought U.S. women’s luge within four-tenths of a second of Germany’s high-powered luge machine.

The Americans, though, have one last step to climb to reach the podium.

Sylke Otto won her second straight gold, Silke Kraushaar completed her Olympic collection with a silver and newcomer Tatjana Huefner won bronze in a predictable German sweep at the Turin Games.

Zablocki settled for fourth, another near-miss for a U.S. team still seeking its first singles medal in luge.

That day may come. But this one belonged to Germany, as it does virtually every four years when medals are handed out.

“I’m happy where I finished, but at the same time I was really fighting for that spot up there,” said Zablocki of Highlands Ranch, Colo. “I am a little disappointed. Actually, I’m a lot disappointed.”

There is something the 25-year-old Zablocki can hang her helmet on as consolation: She’s the best non-German luger in the world.

The Americans may have the technology, finances and coaching staff to compete with powerful Germans. They just can’t catch them. On ice, no one can.

Of the 36 medals awarded since luge debuted at the Innsbruck Games in 1964, the Germans own 27. They have swept the Olympic competition six times in 12 tries, and now twice in a row. Make no mistake: This is their sport.

When Zablocki finished her fourth run, only Huefner, Kraushaar and Otto were still in the start house. With the rest of the field finished, the flag-waving German fans sitting near the finish line playfully mocked the sliding world by chanting, “Jetzt geht’s los” — “Now, it’s starting.”

Moments later, the competition was officially over.

Otto, a four-time world champion likely sliding in her final Olympics, won in 3 minutes, 7.979 seconds. As she sped across the finish line, knowing the gold was hers, the 36-year-old raised both arms in celebration.

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Otto joined East Germany’s Steffi Martin-Walter (1984-88) as the only back-to-back women’s winners.

“It’s like a dream,” Otto said.

Kraushaar, 35 and a winner of bronze in 2002 and gold in 1998, was 0.136 seconds back for the silver, and Huefner, the 22-year-old heir apparent to German sliding superiority, was another 0.345 off the pace for bronze — 0.392 seconds ahead of Zablocki.

Still, Zablocki became the top U.S. woman in an Olympic luge event, finishing one place better than Cammy Myler (1992) and Becky Wilczak (2002), who each finished fifth. She put the pressure on Huefner with a final-run time of 47.236 seconds.

“That’s what I wanted,” Zablocki said, “to put a good run down and see if it would get me there.”

But Zablocki was denied her medal and U.S. sliding history was again put on hold when Huefner came through with a 46.981-second final trip to the bottom, assuring the Germans another 1-2-3 finish.

For the second straight day, competition was halted following a scary crash, this one involving Canada’s Meaghan Simister. She rammed hard into the wall near the bottom of the course and was tossed from her sled, which continued down without her.

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On Monday, 20-year-old American Samantha Retrosi sustained a concussion and needed stitches to close a cut on her chin following a horrific wreck. She was released from a Turin hospital a few hours before Zablocki and Erin Hamlin slid.

After bouncing off the walls during her first two runs, Hamlin, a 19-year-old from Remsen, N.Y., had two nice slides and finished a respectable 12th.

It was a great learning experience for a young American team on the rise, but not yet near the Germans’ level.

Zablocki, who finished 13th at the Salt Lake City Games, isn’t sure what it will take to crack the German juggernaut.

“More training, I guess,” she said. “I don’t know what else I can do.”