‘We just showed everyone what we can do’ – Canadian women make luge history
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Updated 15/12/2019 at 13:31 GMT
Canadian teenagers Caitlin Nash and Natalie Corless made history on Saturday as they became the first women to compete together in a World Cup luge doubles race.
Caitlin Nash and Natalie Corless
Image credit: Eurosport
Whilst there are no specific World Cup rules that say the doubles have to be made up of men there had been no all-female teams up until this point.
16-year-olds Nash and Corless have now created their own piece of history, finishing 22nd out of the 23 competing pairs.
"It's crazy," Nash said after the race.
"I don't think it's sunk in yet."
The pair qualified after Canada were allowed to enter a second sled when a number of countries elected to skip the race.
"Pretty crazy," Corless said. "We proved that women can do this. We showed that today."
There have been four-woman teams in the four-person event and there are both male and female singles competitions but this moment will go down in history for doubles.
"We wanted to lay down two consistent runs, pull a good start," Nash added.
"We had a couple of goals in mind and we achieved those so we're super happy. We just showed everyone what we can do, so we're super happy."
The race was won by German duo Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken, the current leaders of the doubles world rankings.
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"What's so impressive is that they are just sixteen years old," Commentator Colin Bryce told Eurosport Winter Sports editor Peter Sharland.
"They kept their cool while coming down the track in a World Cup race on television, home ice."
Bryce also believes that this really highlights the fact that there should be designated doubles events for both men and women on the World Cup circuit.
It's high time that we had doubles for both the men and the women. This has highlighted that there is a gap there for the women to have another event.
“There are a number of elements to racing luge. One of them is the start and it’s so power dependant like any power based sport you keep men and women apart.
“As for the drive there’s no difference. The women are clearly as good as the men going down the track and piloting, that’s clear for anybody to see.
“I think there’s now enough interest from the women’s side of luging that there should be a dedicated women’s event. They did incredibly well and showed some good piloting."
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