McRae takes bronze in luge
CALGARY• Kim McRae figured she had zero chance at winning a medal after the first run at the luge world championships in Igls, Austria.
Sitting in a distant 10th place — two- tenths of a second back of fellow Canadian Alex Gough in third — McRae did the math and declared the podium out of reach.
So McRae took a deep breath, relaxed her muscles and told herself to soak up the experience of tobogganing feet- first down a sheet of ice in the Alps against the best luge athletes in the world.
Funny what happens when the pressure is gone. With nothing to lose, McRae rocked the fastest start time in the final heat and stormed to bronze with a two- run time of one minute, 19.952 seconds.
“I just let the sled run and focused more on just being there on the track and enjoying the day,” she said Sunday, 24 hours after the highlight of her career thus far. “And that’s when I slide the best, when I let go and let everything happen.”
With the bronze, McRae becomes only the second Canadian besides Gough to ever reach the individual podium at the luge world championships.
Gough made history in 2011 with bronze in Cesana, Italy, and then won bronze again in 2013 in Whistler.
On Saturday, Gough — still a legitimate medal contender in every arc — slipped to fifth.
“I am just ecstatic,” McRae said of joining her legendary Canadian teammate in the record book. “It just shows the young girls on the team ... that I was once in their shoes. I went through rough years, but hard work does pay off.”
Mikael Kingsbury is usually Mr. Automatic when it comes to winning gold medals on the World Cup moguls circuit.
At age 24, Kingsbury is the most decorated mogul skier in history and one of the most dominant winter athletes of his generation.
But on Saturday, Kingsbury proved he is indeed mortal with a slight bobble on his second jump — the cork 1080 — in the super final at Winsport’s Canada Olympic Park.
He still landed on his feet and scored a respectable 82.82 points, good enough for silver. But Australia’s Matt Graham seized gold with 84.52 points.
Thus ends Kingsbury’s winning streak in Calgary at six.