Relay team’s redemption ‘absolutely incredible’
Foursome’s silver-medal finish erases memories of Sochi frustrations
They were just half the members of the luge relay team that won a silver medal for Canada, but doubles partners Tristan Walker and Justin Snith provided a complete range of emotions.
Walker was standing near the bottom of the Olympic Sliding Centre track, beaming a smile and loudly proclaiming the general glee of the moment. “Absolutely incredible,” the Cochrane, Alta., native said. “No words. No words.”
As he was speaking, Snith, standing to his right, bowed his face into his hands. He visibly shook as he wept.
The emotion was understandable. This was the same team, Walker and Snith, plus singles racers Alex Gough and Sam Edney, that finished fourth at Sochi 2014. The group was basically the National Heartbreak Team four years ago: three fourth-place finishes and a fifth among them.
Snith, still sniffling but a little more under control, said making this podium with this group was so very sweet. From four years of regret to two minutes and 24 seconds of redemption.
“We were so close in Sochi,” the Calgarian said between sniffles. “You spend four years, that close, what could have been, not having that moment, but to finally have that moment … priceless.”
The medal was no sure thing. In luge relay, one woman, one man and one doubles team slide down the track in sequence, and Canada came into the event ranked third, meaning they went third last. The American team just in front of them put down a strong time, 2:25.091, the best to that point.
Gough dropped into the track with a quick start, and she kept up the momentum, finishing 0.167 seconds ahead of the pace set by American Summer Britcher.
Edney gave almost all of that lead back with his run, although that wasn’t because he slid poorly but because Chris Mazdzer of the U.S., the silver medallist in singles earlier this week, had been excellent.
The last leg was like an analogy of the Canadian luge team as a whole. Gough, 30, who is likely retiring after Pyeongchang, and Edney, 33, who is definitely retiring, handing off to the 26-year-old duo of Walker and Snith.
All they did was roar down the track, regaining all of the lead that Gough had established and then some, for a total time of 2:24.872. They were in first place, with just two teams to come.
When the time was posted, the Canadians erupted in joy, and collapsed upon one another in a riotous pile of red parkas and toques at the finish house.
Gough of Calgary had won Canada’s first luge medal in Olympic history two nights earlier, and now there was a second. Only six countries, if you group the various incarnations of Germany and Russia/Soviet Union, had ever won Olympic luge medals before Canada’s breakthrough.
Austria came down the track next and couldn’t match the Canadian time. Germany then put down a gold-medal run, because that’s what German lugers do. Canada took silver, which was essentially their best possible result. Germans had won 75 of 129 medals awarded in Olympic luge through the years and claimed six of the 12 here.
“Alex’s win, to me, was the signal that the curse was over,” Snith said, still a little emotional.
Calgary’s Edney said that when the doubles pair was coming down the course, he was trying not to think about Sochi, about the awful feeling he had when he saw they had come up just short. And then Walker and Snith finished, and they were not short at all.
“Seeing that, and being able to completely wipe that away, it was the greatest feeling ever,” Edney said. “To know that we were going to be on the podium together, representing Canada, it was something incredible.”
Edney, who had broken down earlier in the week after his sixthplace finish in men’s singles, was all smiles Thursday night. He said, not surprisingly, that this was a great way to end a career.
“It’s such an amazing feeling to do it in a team format,” Gough said. “I wanted it so bad for them.” She said she just wanted to deliver a good run, and then “they followed it up and we got the redemption for four years ago.”
The Sochi experience was tough enough in the moment, but it somehow became worse when two members of the Russian team that won silver in the relay were banned for life in December by the IOC for doping — automatically upgrading Canada to a bronze — only to have that reversed just this month on appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. They lost, then they won, then they lost all over again.
“Sochi for me is now history,” luge coach Wolfgang Staudinger said.
“There’s something shared with the heartbreak of Sochi,” Snith said. “We’ve been through the ringer with each other, and this is just the perfect way to end Sam and Alex’s career.”
Wewereso close in Sochi. You spend four years, that close, what could have been, not having that moment, but to finally have that moment … priceless.