Team Canada wins bronze medal in team relay at luge worlds

Team Canada rode to the sounds of cheers from family and friends as they claimed the bronze medal in the team relay at the Luge World Championships in Whistler, British Columbia.

The six-man group of Embyr-Lee Susko, Devin Wardrope, Cole Anthony Zajanski, Theo Downey, Beattie Podulsky and Kailey Allan finished the race with a time of 2:51.641. The Germans took home the gold medal, finishing in 2:50.361, while the Austrian team took second place, finishing just behind in 2:50.492.

It was a somewhat surprising medal considering how young the Canadian team is, with Zajanski being the oldest member of the group at just 23 years old. The lugers, however, used their extensive knowledge of the track to their advantage to quickly adjust to any mistakes and unexpected events they encountered.

“The fact that we were able to do this together as a team really shows how strong we are as a team on this track. We’ve had hundreds of runs here, and it showed today with the consistency that we were able to have in all of our performances,” said Susko.

Embyr-Lee Susko finishes 4th in women’s singles

Susko came close to a podium finish the day before, finishing fourth in the women’s singles event. In an extremely close race, her time of 1:17.287 was just 0.081 seconds behind first place, held by Germany’s Julia Taubitz.

It was an encouraging result for the 19-year-old, who had to compete against much more experienced sledders. “Sometimes I forget that I’m 19 and that I’m racing against people who are much older than me. So, managing the nerves was a bit of a challenge between runs. But I managed to put that aside and do my runs,” she said.

Beyond the World Championships that took place this weekend in Whistler, all eyes will now be on the final two stages of the World Cup, which will take place in PyeongChang, South Korea next weekend, and then in Beijing, China.