Veterans Walker, Snith to lead young Canadian luge team at Beijing Olympics

CALGARY - Olympic medallists Tristan Walker and Justin Snith lead a younger Canadian luge workforce on the 2022 Beijing Video games.

Luge Canada and the Canadian Olympic Committee introduced the six-athlete workforce Tuesday.

Calgary’s Snith and Walker, of Cochrane, Alta., head to their fourth Olympics. The veteran doubles pair was a part of Canada’s silver medal-winning relay workforce on the 2018 Pyeongchang Video games.

Snith and Walker will compete in doubles once more in Beijing, whereas Reid Watts of Whistler, B.C., seems to construct on his Twelfth-place end in males’s singles 4 years in the past.

They are going to be joined by first-time Olympians Natalie Corless of Whistler, Trinity Ellis of Pemberton, B.C., and Calgary’s Makena Hodgson in girls’s singles.

Canada can even attempt for a second straight relay podium with a workforce roster but to be decided.

The Olympic workforce was introduced by former Canadian luger Alex Gough in a presentation to elementary faculty college students within the northern communities of Sioux Lookout, Mine Centre, Fort Frances and Nestor Falls.

Gough received Canada’s first Olympic luge medal when she slid to bronze in girls’s singles in Pyeongchang, and was a part of the relay workforce with Snith and Walker and Sam Edney.

“Trying on the historical past of the luge program over the past decade, we're proof desires do come true in the event you set objectives, work onerous and persevere via the ups and downs of the journey,” Walker stated in a press release.

“When Justin and I made our first Olympic workforce in 2010, it was unthinkable that a luge athlete from Canada may stand on the Olympic podium. I need these college students to know the desires for all of us on this workforce – in life and sport – started as kids at school.“

Corless is the youngest member of the workforce at 18 years outdated. She was a silver medallist in doubles on the 2020 Youth Olympic Video games.

“Six months in the past I'd have thought going to the Video games was virtually unattainable, however after an thrilling season, filled with ups and downs I'm thrilled that I get to be part of Workforce Canada for the 2022 Olympics,” Corless stated within the assertion.

Ellis, 19, is coming off her third World Cup season and posted a top-10 end at an Olympic take a look at occasion on the Yanqing Sliding Centre in November. Hodgson, 20, simply completed her first World Cup season.

Calgary’s Wolfgang Staudinger, Bernhard Glass of Oberhof, Germany and Duncan Kennedy of Lake Placid, U.S., will coach the Canadian workforce.

Luge competitors is Feb. 5 -10 on the Yanqing Sliding Centre.

This report by The Canadian Press was first revealed Jan. 18, 2022.