Redemption in silver
Canada’s luge relay team slides to silver in Pyeongchang after having 2014 bronze taken away and restored to Russians
PYEONGCHANG — Canada earned its second Olympic luge medal in dramatic fashion, finishing second in the team relay at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games.
The team of singles sliders Alex Gough and Sam Edney and doubles duo Tristan Walker and Justin Snith raced to silver on Thursday, in a time of two minutes 24.872 seconds.
The powerhouse Germans won gold in 2:24.517 while Austria took bronze in 2:24.988. The Canadians mobbed Walker and Snith after their doubles run put Canada atop the standings with just the Austrians and Germans to go. They jumped for joy after the Austrians failed to beat their time, and wrapped themselves in Canadian flags after the race.
“I couldn’t ask for a more amazing team to be a part of in this experience. Super proud of these three, and our entire program,” Edney said. “It’s something we’ve worked so hard for.”
The medal was redemption for the Canadian team, which finished fourth in the relay when it made its Olympic debut four years ago — a mere tenth of a second back of third. The foursome got bumped up to bronze for what would have been Canada’s first luge podium at a Games in December when two Russian competitors were among dozens of athletes from the host nation stripped of their 2014 results and banned for life for alleged doping violations by the International Olympic Committee. But the Canadians were once again pushed back to fourth following the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s recent decision to overturn the punishment for 28 of those athletes, including lugers Albert Demchenko and Tatiana Ivanova.
“It shows the strength of our team. That fuelled us. That fuelled us for a long time,” Edney said. “I just know that we put in all the hard work and we did everything right. Tonight was about sliding for each other and sliding for Canada, and we did that.”
Gough secured Canada’s firstever Olympic medal in luge with a bronze in Tuesday’s women’s race. “It’s incredible. The first one was awesome, but to get to come out here and race it with these guys ... it’s such an amazing feeling to do it in a team format,” Gough said.
“I wanted it so bad for them. I put together the best run I could. They followed it up and we got the redemption from four years ago.”
In the team relay, the women’s slider goes first, followed by the men’s racer and the doubles partners, with each striking the finish pad at the bottom of the track to signal they’ve completed their run. Edney was sixth in Sunday’s men’s race, while Walker and Snith were fifth in Wednesday’s doubles at the 16curve Olympic Sliding Centre track in the South Korean mountains that measures just over 1,200 metres.
Prior to Gough’s bronze earlier this week, Canada had failed to win a luge medal at every Games since making its debut in the sport all the way back in 1968.