Canada’s Beattie Podulsky and Kailey Allan Slide to Career-Best Fifth at Luge World Cup in Winterberg

WINTERBERG, GER.—Canada’s women’s doubles luge team of Beattie Podulsky and Kailey Allan delivered a career-best performance on Saturday, racing to fifth place at the opening World Cup event of the season in Winterberg, Germany.
 
Earning their spot in the women’s doubles race after a third-place finish in Friday’s Nations Cup, the Calgary-based duo clocked a combined time of 1:28.210 on the demanding 11-corner, 996-metre Winterberg track on Saturday.
 
“It is great to get our best World Cup finish,” said Podulsky, who added the tandem crashed in Winterberg at last year’s World Cup. “We had two clean runs and a solid starting setup.”
 
The 20-year-old Podulsky and Allan, 22, posted the fastest start times in each of their two heats, marking their growing competitiveness with the world’s fastest feet-first sliders on the international circuit.
 
“The key today was two fast starts and consistency down the track. We are really happy with our two runs today,” added Allan. “Our training has been really good this week, so we were relying on those runs and not trying to do anything special today.”
 
Germany’s Jessica Degenhardt and Cheyenne Rosenthal won the women’s doubles race on Saturday with a time of 1:26.881. Austria’s Selina Egle and Lara Michaela Kipp placed second at 1:26.950, while Germany’s Dajana Eitberger and Magdalena Matschina finished third at 1:27.015.
 
Podulsky and Allan have been rising steadily in a fast-developing women’s doubles field since being paired last year, thanks to a Luge Canada initiative designed to build depth in the program and ensure Canada has sleds in each of the luge disciplines at the 2026 Olympic Winter Games. Women’s doubles sliding will make its debut in Milano/Cortina.
 
The colourful Canadians made an immediate impact in their rookie season, capturing bronze at the U23 World Championships, finishing eighth at the senior World Championships, and took the anchor leg for Team Canada’s historic bronze=medal winning triumph in the team relay at the same event.
 
Canada also had two sleds in the start handles for the men’s singles race in Winterberg. Neither of the two Calgary-based sleds qualified for the second run with the elite 20.
 
Theo Downey placed 21st while Cole Zajanski was 24th in a rare singles start.
 
Germany’s Felix Loch won the men’s race with a time of 1:43.160.
 
The Canadian Luge Association is a not-for-profit organization responsible for governing the sport of luge across the country. With the financial backing of from the Government of Canada, Canadian Olympic Committee and Own the Podium, the Canadian Luge Association safely recruits and develops the nation’s current and future high-performance luge athletes with the goal of regularly climbing onto the international podium. For more information on the Canadian Luge Association, please visit us at www.luge.ca on the Internet.