Voetter and Oberhofer give Italy a home-ice win in Olympic women’s doubles luge
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CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — Andrea Voetter and Marion Oberhofer hadn’t won a race this season on the World Cup circuit. They weren’t even contenders in many of them.
Ah, the comforts of home.
A little Italian ice changed everything — and the first women’s doubles luge champions in Olympic history are a pair of Italians who stared down the best teams in the world on Wednesday night. Voetter and Oberhofer won the gold medal in 1 minute, 46.204 seconds, holding off the two sleds considered to be the best in the world.
“Winning on a home track in my first Olympic Games, it’s so amazing,” Oberhofer said. “Overwhelmed with emotions for the race, and we’re so grateful to everyone who supported us to reach this possibility. To race here in Cortina, that’s amazing.”
Germany’s Dajana Eitberger — who won the silver medal in women’s singles at Pyeongchang in 2018 — and Magdalena Matschina were second in 1:46.404, and the Austrian sled of Selina Egle and Lara Kipp was third in 1:46.543.
Canadians Beattie Podulsky and Kailey Allan, both of Calgary, finished 10th.
“These three nations standing on the podium, they have been fighting since the women’s doubles went in the Olympic program, and every time we change places in the World Cup,” Eitberger said. “So, I think these are the most wonderful women today winning the medals.”
Latvia’s Marta Robezniece and Kitija Bogdanova were fourth in 1:46.796. Chevonne Forgan and Sophia Kirkby were fifth for the U.S. in 1:47.565.
The race — barring any big mistakes — was basically down to three sleds for three medals going into the second and final heat.
Voetter and Oberhofer had the lead with a first-run time of 53.102 seconds. The other top contenders were within one-tenth of a second of the lead: Eitberger and Matschina had a time of 53.123, while Egle and Kipp were third in 53.193.
Only 11 sleds were in the race and no more than one per nation, meaning some of the best sleds in the world — namely the German team of Jessica Degenhardt and Cheyenne Rosenthal, along with the U.S. team of Maya Chan and Sophia Gordon — weren’t in these Olympics, and many within the sport weren’t happy about that.
In fact, four of the sleds that didn’t qualify for the Olympics were ahead of Voetter and Oberhofer in this season’s World Cup standings.
That didn’t matter Wednesday. The Italians reigned.
There were 106 available quota spots for luge at the Olympics: 25 men’s singles sliders, 25 women’s singles sliders and 17 men’s doubles teams took up 84 of those. That left room for 22 more women, or 11 doubles sleds.
Forgan and Kirkby were first down the mountain in the first heat, meaning they’ll forever have the distinction of being the first women’s doubles sled in Olympic history.
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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
