Canadian Doubles Luge Sleds Match 10th Place Finishes at the Olympic Games
CORTINA, Ita.—The Canadian Luge Team marked a historic day for the sport with two 10th-place finishes in men’s and women’s doubles racing at the Olympic Winter Games in Cortina, Italy.
The men’s duo of Devin Wardrope and Cole Zajanski had one of their best races in he last four years, placing 10th in the men’s doubles showdown while fellow Calgarians, Beattie Podulsky and Kailey Allan, slid to the same result in the debut of women’s doubles racing at the Olympic Games.
Wardrope and Zajanksi executed clean lines and 10th-place times in both runs down the 1,220-metre track at the Cortina Sliding Centre, posting a combined time of 1:45.906.
“To be able to put down two of our best runs all week, and utilize the skills that we got from training, feels amazing,” said Wardrope.
Battling a significant shoulder injury that left him sidelined for most of the year, the 23-year-old Wardrope wasn’t sure six weeks ago if he’d even have the opportunity to realize his Olympic dream.
“It’s so crazy to think we had no idea even last month if we could event compete today,” added Wardrope. “We have come such a long way in such a short amount of time.”
Zajanski, the 23-year-old bottom man on the sled, remained patient and sharp sliding singles until Wardrope was ready to return.
“Devin deserves this for getting back and pushing through his injury,” said Zajanski. “We just kept progressing with better runs all week, and that happened again on race day with two pretty good runs. I’m just glad the race runs were the best we’ve ever had on this track, so I’ll walk away pretty happy here.”
The Italian duo of Emanuel Rieder and Simon Kainzwaldner locked up the gold medal at 1:45.086. Austria’s Thomas Steu and Wolfgang Kindl were second with a time of 1:45.154, while Germany’s Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt snagged the bronze with a combined time of 1:45.176.
Joining the two Canadians in the top 10 were their teammates and the nation’s first ever women’s doubles luge sled at the Olympic Games driven by Beattie Podulsky and Kailey Allan.
Having only been sliding together for a year in preparation for women’s doubles Olympic debut, nerves got the best of the newly formed luge tandem with a mistake at the top of the track in the opening heat.
“The first run wasn’t what we wanted. That massive mistake essentially cost us the whole race. It is not how we wanted to start our Olympic career, but there are many more races to come, and we are ready to throw it down in the future,” said Podulsky.
The cool Canucks cleaned things up down the remainder of the 15-corner track. They capped off their 2026 Olympics with a clean second trip down the track, demonstrating their potential moving forward while clocking a two-run time of 1:49.482.
“It was definitely a challenging day, but I’m glad we held it together for the second run and put down a great run,” said the 22-year-old Allan, who added the teammates and friends hugged it out, chatted and quickly reset between heats. “We are going to build on this now. We know what we need to do leading towards the next Games. I’m glad we ended it on a good note.”
The result adds to Canada’s proud Olympic history in sliding sports and sets a strong foundation as the program builds toward the future with one of the youngest teams on the international circuit.
“It feels great to have women’s doubles on the Olympic stage. Hopefully we were an inspiration for younger girls in the sport,” said Allan.
Italy’s Andrea Voetter and Marion Oberhoffer were crowned the first ever Olympic champions in women’s doubles sliding after clocking-in at 1:46.284.
Germany’s Dajana Eitberger and Magdalena Matschina were second at 1:46.404, while Austria’s Selina Egle and Lara Michaela Kipp slid to the bronze medal with a time of 1:46.543.