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Hi All. We've been off for
a couple weeks while our athletes prepared to
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compete in the two thousand and twenty
two Beijing Olympics. Today I have two
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guests who came into Chat Luge and
the Olympics, but also about their extremely
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successful season as women's doubles loge athletes. They just returned from Europe after winning
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a bronze medal at the first ever
world championships for women's doubles luge. CONGRATS
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and welcome, Chavan Forgan and Sophie
Kirkby. Hi. Thank yeah, you're
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welcome. So, Chavon, I
know I had you on in the past
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on the podcast, but can you
give us some you know, just a
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quick rundown of where you're from and
how you started louge? Yeah, I'm
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from Chumpsford, Massachusetts. I started
louge with one of the White Castle slider
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searches and I think two thousand and
twelve, two thousand and thirteen around that
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time. And what about you,
Sophie? I grew up in Ray Brook,
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New York, which is right next
to lake placid, so I'm pretty
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local and I started louge through the
local at Auron deckluge club where you would
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just go and slide on weekends.
So of course the ultimate goal is making
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the Olympic team, but you two
took a pretty big gamble when you decided
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to start doubles together, because it's
not an official sport in the Olympic Games
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at Sophie, can you tell me
about making that decision to end your singles
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career and to start doubles? As
it came to it, it was just
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thinking what would be most beneficial in
the long run, what could I potentially
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be the most successful in and put
my hard effort in and potentially do some
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great stuff for us a loge and
in my opinion, especially with my height
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disadvantage, being a bottom woman seemed
like a good option for me, as
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was suggested by my coaches. What
a so Chavan, how did you and
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Sophie end up together? We have
actually been on the team together for a
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long time. Sophie started, I
think, a year or two before I
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did, but then we were on
the same see team, the same traveling
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team, the same junior team.
So we I would say we're pretty evenly
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matched. Starting out, we had
known each other a long time, we
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had been training together a long time. We were very similar in our techniques
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and our sliding and the coaches that
we had had, and then, with
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Sophie being shorter and me being on
the taller side, it was almost just
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like a perfect match. And our
coaches saw it before we did and when
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they suggested it we figured we'd give
it a try. So that's awesome.
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And you, of course, you're
similar ages and you started around the same
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time, and so that all makes
sense and it's such an exciting thought.
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I mean, we started talking about
actually, originally I think they were talking
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about having women's doubles in this two
thousand and twenty two Olympic Games. It
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was voted down because I think they
decided at the time there weren't enough teams
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and it would kind of be too
fast of a push. And what do
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you think? The chances are,
Chavon, that it will be in the
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next Olympics. Everyone I've spoken to
about it has been leaning towards it's going
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to happen. The chances are pretty
good. I don't want to get my
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hopes up, but it certainly looks
like we're doing everything right moving in the
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right direction, having the World Cups
this season, getting world champs in having
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lots of nations produced lots of teams
with all ages. I think it's looking
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good, I'm hoping at least.
So she mentioned a lot of nations having
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a lot of teams. Sophie,
how many other nations? Like how many
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sleds are do doubles in the races
in General? So we just had our
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world championship, I believe last week
or two weekends ago, and there were
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actually, off top my head,
I think, roughly seventeen sleds that competed
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in that race. So hopefully the
futures looking bright and with another four years
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that hopefully means more sleds. That's
not like right around the number of slugs
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that were competing in the Olympics just
this week. So for doubles. So
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that that's that's great. That's amazing. So we can you tell us a
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little bit about your bronze medal in
the first ever world championship for women's Louge
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Doubles Louge? I mean it felt
great, obviously getting that bronze metal.
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It was like, Oh my God, we did something Nice. Yeah,
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and crossing the line on this track. That line's just so far down when
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we're going up and on top of
that I have Chivon right in front of
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me, so I couldn't quite see
it yet till we got all the way
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up there and then I saw our
time and of course, after the first
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round we were only in fourth place, but we did get first place with
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those out of so far, with
the three other sets ahead of us to
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go. And then we didn't actually
officially get third until our teammates had gone
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a bit slower than us. So
we did switch finishing positions with our teammates
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got it. So they finished or
they were in third after the first run
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and then you came down and beat
them to finish third. Chavan. Tell
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me about the competition in women's doubles. Is it the usual suspects doing well
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on races? Who are the biggest
competitors? Definitely, Germany's still pretty dominant
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right now. I think, as
it's still fairly new, there's a lot
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of space for for everyone to sort
of get in on this, especially with
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a lot of the new standardized sleds
and the new rules that they're setting in
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place. I think it's gonna hopefully
allow a lot of different nations and countries
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on the podium and coming seasons.
Yeah, but noticeably Germany so far,
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Germany, and I like so Germany
went one too. Yeah, and we've
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seen Latvia on the podium this year. Our other double seam Mim Rhianna and
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have been up there a few times
as well. So the US has been
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doing pretty well, I'd say awesome. I think the Russians were on the
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podium maybe once or twice. So
yeah, pretty similar. Yeah, pretty
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so what we see in general?
Sophie, what do you think about the
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standardized sleds that they have you on? I think they had a good concept,
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a good idea. It definitely has
time to evolve and people getting used
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to it and people understanding what it's
supposed to be. Originally the thought was
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that everyone's going to be on the
same sleds, such as Bob sled,
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and so no, one's not at
a technical advantage. Right there are they
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are still working on the rules and
how the sleds are and I guess we'll
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just see how it goes, because
in the last few races that we had
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there were some slight changes to the
rules. MM. So that meant some
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slight changes to the SLEDS. Okay, but hopefully we will see everyone being
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on the same page and just getting
a more understanding, because this is the
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first World Cup season with standardized sleds
well and you know, with any new
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thing that's a pretty big drastic change. It's there's going to be some growing
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pains and I you know, I
think the sled manufacturers are learning, the
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coaches are learning how to work with
these standardized sleds, so I think it's
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only going to get better. So
pretty cool. So when I competed in
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Luge eons ago, there were no
women's doubles options, so I never really
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even thought about doing doubles and had
never crossed my mind. But recently I
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was thinking about kind of like how
nice it would be to have a teammate,
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you know, you could discuss the
game plan for the race, give
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you a pep talk when you you
know things weren't going well or if you
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were having a bad day, help
you with steel work and sled maintenance,
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maybe carry the sled. So,
Chavon, do you think the change from
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singles to doubles is a pretty positive
experience in those categories? It's definitely nice
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having someone else carried the sled for
me, but it was it was a
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huge change at first a big jump
because singles loses such a personal experience and
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it's so competitive, and Sophie and
I were competitors for years, and so
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making the jump to suddenly be laying
on top of her while doing losee was
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took a lot of learning and growing, but I think we've come a long
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way and it's been a really fun
experience. Yeah, that's I just think
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of the idea of like having someone
on your side, on your your working
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together to accomplish the same goal.
Yeah, as opposed to going head to
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head, even though you guys as
singles athletes can be really great friends,
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in the end of the day your
competitors, but now your teammates, and
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that's pretty cool. We're going to
shift gears a little bit. We're going
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to talk a little bit about the
Olympics, which just finished up today.
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It was a kind of it was
a tough week, definitely for the US.
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Sophie, would what were your impressions
of the Olympic Games this week?
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Overall, I'm happy with my teammates, with all the effort and hard work
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they put in. I thought they
put some put some great runs. Some
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had difficulties, but I'm proud that
everyone tried their best and brought their best.
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Yeah, you could really tell that
they were putting all their effort in.
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You know, that track. It
just looks so difficult to our women,
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Emily and summer actually crashed just before
the last curve. And we saw
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even other international, excellent athletes,
you know, like the leader after the
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first run. She crashed from Germany. You know, so many athletes having
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issues before the Finnish curve, Chavon, what were your impressions of that track?
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I know you didn't compete there or
slide there, but what did you
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think when you watch the the race
with that track it? Oh my gosh,
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it looks so insane. It looks
like no other track I've ever slid
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on. Talking to some of the
athletes who have slid there, the main
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thing everyone has said is how open
the curves are and how sort of flat
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they are right, which you can
see when you watch the race, and
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it just looks so strange, the
way that the pressure takes you on those
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sort of flat ramp like curves.
Yeah, it's so hard to figure out.
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You know what if their lines are
good or I know I was watching
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it. I'm like, I think
it looks good. I don't know,
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it was very different kind of what
race to watch. Oh my gosh,
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exactly. It looks so challenging.
I'm so impressed by all they did.
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Amazing. It was amazing and I
know it especially like everybody was in the
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same boat and that very few athletes
had training runs on the track until this
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November. So that's totally different than
of course that's covid is to blame for
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that, but just like they had
very little runs. I think the season
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was hard for everyone. It's been
so hard to be on the road this
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whole time, and but once they
got to the big stage, they all
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put in the top effort, the
best effort, and you could tell when,
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even you know when you're you hit
walls and you crash. That means
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you put it all out on the
line and you know, like you said,
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you're really proud. Would we're all
proud as well. So and today
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was the very exciting team competition.
It is such a fun event to watch
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and be able to cheer on a
group of Americans to have fast times.
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I know I was jumping up and
down. I actually beforehand I started my
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apple watch and to see what my
heart rate went up to and it was
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like, and say it would went
pretty high. It was pretty funny.
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It burned like twenty nine hollies.
I think that's so. You need now
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to watch the lusers exactly. So
it was. I can only imagine what
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it's like as an athlete to compete
in that fun relay event. Sophie,
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what did you think of the singles
runs today? Ashley and Chris has runs.
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I thought overall, they put some
great runs down. On top of
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that, you know, like you
said, neither of them have really had
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many runs of this track and on
top of that, Ashley Sur First Olympics
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and here she is representing in team
relay. Like go, Ashley, so
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I was super proud of both of
them and what they put down. Yeah,
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really consistent runs out of both of
them and like they looked great.
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And then, not to mention Chris
had to slide down from the you know,
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from a different start. They go
from ladies and double start during the
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relay, and like that must change
a lot of things on the way down
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as well, like the speed is
just slower, so the timing is totally
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different. Could I also say Ashley
had a fourth place downtime on relay.
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Did she okay? I have to
baby run. I haven't seen them,
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like the breakouts. I've been wanting
to look that up today, but like,
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yeah, it looked like it was
a fourth place run, like it
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was pretty legit nailed that exit of
thirteen. I think it is. Yeah,
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Oh, greats great body. It
is awesome. So, Chavan,
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what did you think of Zach and
Shan's performance at the team relay? I
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think they really put it all out
there today. I'm sure with the temperatures
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and with the track being refrigerated and
sort of inclosed like that. We've seen
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such hard ice every day for racing
and I think they just kind of pushed
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it as hard as they could today
to try and put everything on the line
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and try and just get down as
fast as possible, and I think we
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saw that problem that they had been
having out of thirteen, but they kept
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it steals down. They did.
Yeah, they did great. I'm so
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proud of them, so proud.
It was so exciting. So of there.
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Yeah, most people don't know,
but they had a huge crash a
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couple days ago and training and actually
broke their sled and they had to get
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it fixed and so for them to
come back from that and put down some
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runs and then, you know,
I think, and like you said,
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they put it all out on the
line and that's what you have to do
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if you're going for a metal.
You have to put it all out there
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and you just go for it and
you you know it. Have to be
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pretty aggressive about it, and they
did. So that's really awesome. Yeah,
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and now they get to come home
Olympians. So so another thing that
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deserves to be talked about is Natalie
Geisenberger. She's always, always been the
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on the top. You know,
actually this year she didn't have a great
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season World Cup season. There were
you know, there was a point there
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early in the season where a lot
of people wondered would she make the Olympic
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team. Here she is. She
won the gold medal and the singles event
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and then again the team relay.
And this is all after having a baby
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after the last Olympics. You know, I know you guys are pretty young
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and you haven't thought, maybe haven't
had a thought about starting a family,
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but I think you guys can probably
like sense how important this is for women
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in sport. You know, First
Alison Felix. This you know in track
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and field, Alana Myers, tailor
and Bob sled, Natalie Geisenberger and luge
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like this is unseen an unheard of
before. Like it's pretty cool. Yeah,
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for sure it's gonna give women in
sport more longevity, because I know
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a lot of women decide to leave
the sport to start families and now you
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can go back to sport and have
a successful Olympics. It's incredible to see,
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you know, these women sort of
prove so many people wrong and just
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be able to kill it like that, MMM, when there's such like a
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perception that that's not really how athletes
are. Yeah, but they can just
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they do it and they do it
well, and she did it with gold
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medals. Yeah, that's right.
Yeah, it's incredible. It's pretty incredible.
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Yeah, it's good to have that
kind of representation. Yeah, definitely.
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So I is there anything you guys
wanted to talk about that we didn't
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add that I didn't get a chance
to ask? I would have to say
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something that happened in these Olympics for
lug that hasn't happened many years would be
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summer Britcher bringing back the knuckle paddle. It my goodness through guys. Yeah,
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she broke her finger at the SEGULDA
World Cup when she had a big
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crash and it was the Middle Finger, which in you know, she showed
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off some sweet pictures of that middle
thing style and I just like she also.
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I saw the picture the x rays, and I was like that's like
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for real, like that looks so
painful. And Yeah, I don't think
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we've seen knuckle spikes since two thousand
and six at the I mean most recent
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so yeah, summer put you know, it's tough when you get injured to
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work through it, and she did
exactly that. I could put it all
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out there. She did it and
she did it well. She had some
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good start times with those. I
don't know how she did that. I
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was incredible, pretty cool, definite. It was fun to watch. You
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know, I wish they could go
now and watch all sorts of competition.
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They might be able to get a
little bit in. I mean the big
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part about the Olympics is after your
races are done, is watching your other
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team, USA sports, compete and
cheering them on. But because of COVID
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I know they're coming home pretty soon, actually so but hopefully they have.
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I'm I know they had a good
time and I can't wait until they get
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home and, like you said,
are they're all Olympians and it's very exciting.
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So well, I can't thank you
enough for coming on to chat today.
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Really, you know, you guys
are breaking down barriers as well for
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women, and I think that's something
to be really proud of. And you
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know I'm proud of you and and
I have an eleven year old daughter who
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I'm like. I could see her
being a bottom bottom women double person.
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So you know she's got my height
problems. Yeah, and if it wasn't
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for you, Ladies and Maya and
ran and like, it wouldn't happen.
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So thank you so much. Thank
you so much for having us. Yeah,
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thank you. I loved catching up
with Chavon Forgan and Sophie Kirkby last
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week after the Olympic team relay event. I Echo what they both said about
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being extremely proud of our athletes and
all the effort they've put into the sport
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over their lifetimes. Congratulations, Team
USA. I also meant what I said
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about not only the Olympic moms showing
the world what they can do, but
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how these women's doubles teams are revolutionizing
sport and we are here to witness it.
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It's so exciting to think about what
the future holds for female athletes thanks
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to these women. Next episode will
be out Thursday and it will feature junior
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world championship bronze medalist Matt griner about
his successful season and what he took away
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from the Olympic Games. Now that
the season is winding down, think about
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spreading the word to young kids in
your life about how they can try louge.
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00:19:04.680 --> 00:19:11.549
There are both loge challenges on Ski
Hills and Whitecastle slider searches being scheduled
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00:19:11.630 --> 00:19:15.269
as we speak. Go To us
a loge dotorg for more information. Thanks
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for listening to blank a podcast about
what it takes to win a lose race
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and the blink of an eye.
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Hi All. We've been off for
a couple weeks while our athletes prepared to
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compete in the two thousand and twenty
two Beijing Olympics. Today I have two
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guests who came into Chat Luge and
the Olympics, but also about their extremely
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successful season as women's doubles loge athletes. They just returned from Europe after winning
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a bronze medal at the first ever
world championships for women's doubles luge. CONGRATS
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and welcome, Chavan Forgan and Sophie
Kirkby. Hi. Thank yeah, you're
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00:00:38.570 --> 00:00:42.530
welcome. So, Chavon, I
know I had you on in the past
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on the podcast, but can you
give us some you know, just a
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00:00:45.409 --> 00:00:49.009
quick rundown of where you're from and
how you started louge? Yeah, I'm
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from Chumpsford, Massachusetts. I started
louge with one of the White Castle slider
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searches and I think two thousand and
twelve, two thousand and thirteen around that
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time. And what about you,
Sophie? I grew up in Ray Brook,
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New York, which is right next
to lake placid, so I'm pretty
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local and I started louge through the
local at Auron deckluge club where you would
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just go and slide on weekends.
So of course the ultimate goal is making
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the Olympic team, but you two
took a pretty big gamble when you decided
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to start doubles together, because it's
not an official sport in the Olympic Games
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at Sophie, can you tell me
about making that decision to end your singles
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career and to start doubles? As
it came to it, it was just
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thinking what would be most beneficial in
the long run, what could I potentially
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be the most successful in and put
my hard effort in and potentially do some
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great stuff for us a loge and
in my opinion, especially with my height
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disadvantage, being a bottom woman seemed
like a good option for me, as
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was suggested by my coaches. What
a so Chavan, how did you and
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Sophie end up together? We have
actually been on the team together for a
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long time. Sophie started, I
think, a year or two before I
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did, but then we were on
the same see team, the same traveling
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team, the same junior team.
So we I would say we're pretty evenly
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matched. Starting out, we had
known each other a long time, we
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had been training together a long time. We were very similar in our techniques
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and our sliding and the coaches that
we had had, and then, with
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Sophie being shorter and me being on
the taller side, it was almost just
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like a perfect match. And our
coaches saw it before we did and when
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they suggested it we figured we'd give
it a try. So that's awesome.
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And you, of course, you're
similar ages and you started around the same
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time, and so that all makes
sense and it's such an exciting thought.
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I mean, we started talking about
actually, originally I think they were talking
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about having women's doubles in this two
thousand and twenty two Olympic Games. It
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was voted down because I think they
decided at the time there weren't enough teams
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and it would kind of be too
fast of a push. And what do
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you think? The chances are,
Chavon, that it will be in the
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next Olympics. Everyone I've spoken to
about it has been leaning towards it's going
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to happen. The chances are pretty
good. I don't want to get my
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hopes up, but it certainly looks
like we're doing everything right moving in the
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right direction, having the World Cups
this season, getting world champs in having
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lots of nations produced lots of teams
with all ages. I think it's looking
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good, I'm hoping at least.
So she mentioned a lot of nations having
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a lot of teams. Sophie,
how many other nations? Like how many
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sleds are do doubles in the races
in General? So we just had our
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world championship, I believe last week
or two weekends ago, and there were
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actually, off top my head,
I think, roughly seventeen sleds that competed
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in that race. So hopefully the
futures looking bright and with another four years
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that hopefully means more sleds. That's
not like right around the number of slugs
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that were competing in the Olympics just
this week. So for doubles. So
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that that's that's great. That's amazing. So we can you tell us a
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little bit about your bronze medal in
the first ever world championship for women's Louge
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Doubles Louge? I mean it felt
great, obviously getting that bronze metal.
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It was like, Oh my God, we did something Nice. Yeah,
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and crossing the line on this track. That line's just so far down when
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we're going up and on top of
that I have Chivon right in front of
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me, so I couldn't quite see
it yet till we got all the way
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up there and then I saw our
time and of course, after the first
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round we were only in fourth place, but we did get first place with
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those out of so far, with
the three other sets ahead of us to
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go. And then we didn't actually
officially get third until our teammates had gone
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a bit slower than us. So
we did switch finishing positions with our teammates
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got it. So they finished or
they were in third after the first run
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and then you came down and beat
them to finish third. Chavan. Tell
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me about the competition in women's doubles. Is it the usual suspects doing well
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on races? Who are the biggest
competitors? Definitely, Germany's still pretty dominant
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right now. I think, as
it's still fairly new, there's a lot
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of space for for everyone to sort
of get in on this, especially with
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a lot of the new standardized sleds
and the new rules that they're setting in
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place. I think it's gonna hopefully
allow a lot of different nations and countries
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on the podium and coming seasons.
Yeah, but noticeably Germany so far,
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Germany, and I like so Germany
went one too. Yeah, and we've
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seen Latvia on the podium this year. Our other double seam Mim Rhianna and
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have been up there a few times
as well. So the US has been
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doing pretty well, I'd say awesome. I think the Russians were on the
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podium maybe once or twice. So
yeah, pretty similar. Yeah, pretty
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so what we see in general?
Sophie, what do you think about the
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standardized sleds that they have you on? I think they had a good concept,
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a good idea. It definitely has
time to evolve and people getting used
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to it and people understanding what it's
supposed to be. Originally the thought was
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that everyone's going to be on the
same sleds, such as Bob sled,
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and so no, one's not at
a technical advantage. Right there are they
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are still working on the rules and
how the sleds are and I guess we'll
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just see how it goes, because
in the last few races that we had
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there were some slight changes to the
rules. MM. So that meant some
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slight changes to the SLEDS. Okay, but hopefully we will see everyone being
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on the same page and just getting
a more understanding, because this is the
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first World Cup season with standardized sleds
well and you know, with any new
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thing that's a pretty big drastic change. It's there's going to be some growing
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pains and I you know, I
think the sled manufacturers are learning, the
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coaches are learning how to work with
these standardized sleds, so I think it's
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only going to get better. So
pretty cool. So when I competed in
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Luge eons ago, there were no
women's doubles options, so I never really
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even thought about doing doubles and had
never crossed my mind. But recently I
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was thinking about kind of like how
nice it would be to have a teammate,
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you know, you could discuss the
game plan for the race, give
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you a pep talk when you you
know things weren't going well or if you
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were having a bad day, help
you with steel work and sled maintenance,
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maybe carry the sled. So,
Chavon, do you think the change from
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singles to doubles is a pretty positive
experience in those categories? It's definitely nice
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having someone else carried the sled for
me, but it was it was a
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huge change at first a big jump
because singles loses such a personal experience and
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it's so competitive, and Sophie and
I were competitors for years, and so
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making the jump to suddenly be laying
on top of her while doing losee was
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took a lot of learning and growing, but I think we've come a long
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way and it's been a really fun
experience. Yeah, that's I just think
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of the idea of like having someone
on your side, on your your working
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together to accomplish the same goal.
Yeah, as opposed to going head to
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head, even though you guys as
singles athletes can be really great friends,
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in the end of the day your
competitors, but now your teammates, and
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that's pretty cool. We're going to
shift gears a little bit. We're going
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to talk a little bit about the
Olympics, which just finished up today.
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It was a kind of it was
a tough week, definitely for the US.
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Sophie, would what were your impressions
of the Olympic Games this week?
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Overall, I'm happy with my teammates, with all the effort and hard work
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they put in. I thought they
put some put some great runs. Some
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had difficulties, but I'm proud that
everyone tried their best and brought their best.
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Yeah, you could really tell that
they were putting all their effort in.
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You know, that track. It
just looks so difficult to our women,
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Emily and summer actually crashed just before
the last curve. And we saw
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even other international, excellent athletes,
you know, like the leader after the
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first run. She crashed from Germany. You know, so many athletes having
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issues before the Finnish curve, Chavon, what were your impressions of that track?
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I know you didn't compete there or
slide there, but what did you
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think when you watch the the race
with that track it? Oh my gosh,
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it looks so insane. It looks
like no other track I've ever slid
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on. Talking to some of the
athletes who have slid there, the main
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thing everyone has said is how open
the curves are and how sort of flat
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they are right, which you can
see when you watch the race, and
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it just looks so strange, the
way that the pressure takes you on those
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sort of flat ramp like curves.
Yeah, it's so hard to figure out.
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You know what if their lines are
good or I know I was watching
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it. I'm like, I think
it looks good. I don't know,
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it was very different kind of what
race to watch. Oh my gosh,
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exactly. It looks so challenging.
I'm so impressed by all they did.
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Amazing. It was amazing and I
know it especially like everybody was in the
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same boat and that very few athletes
had training runs on the track until this
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November. So that's totally different than
of course that's covid is to blame for
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that, but just like they had
very little runs. I think the season
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was hard for everyone. It's been
so hard to be on the road this
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whole time, and but once they
got to the big stage, they all
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put in the top effort, the
best effort, and you could tell when,
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even you know when you're you hit
walls and you crash. That means
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you put it all out on the
line and you know, like you said,
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you're really proud. Would we're all
proud as well. So and today
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was the very exciting team competition.
It is such a fun event to watch
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and be able to cheer on a
group of Americans to have fast times.
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I know I was jumping up and
down. I actually beforehand I started my
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apple watch and to see what my
heart rate went up to and it was
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like, and say it would went
pretty high. It was pretty funny.
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It burned like twenty nine hollies.
I think that's so. You need now
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to watch the lusers exactly. So
it was. I can only imagine what
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it's like as an athlete to compete
in that fun relay event. Sophie,
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what did you think of the singles
runs today? Ashley and Chris has runs.
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I thought overall, they put some
great runs down. On top of
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that, you know, like you
said, neither of them have really had
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many runs of this track and on
top of that, Ashley Sur First Olympics
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and here she is representing in team
relay. Like go, Ashley, so
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I was super proud of both of
them and what they put down. Yeah,
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really consistent runs out of both of
them and like they looked great.
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And then, not to mention Chris
had to slide down from the you know,
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from a different start. They go
from ladies and double start during the
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relay, and like that must change
a lot of things on the way down
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as well, like the speed is
just slower, so the timing is totally
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different. Could I also say Ashley
had a fourth place downtime on relay.
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Did she okay? I have to
baby run. I haven't seen them,
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like the breakouts. I've been wanting
to look that up today, but like,
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yeah, it looked like it was
a fourth place run, like it
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was pretty legit nailed that exit of
thirteen. I think it is. Yeah,
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Oh, greats great body. It
is awesome. So, Chavan,
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what did you think of Zach and
Shan's performance at the team relay? I
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think they really put it all out
there today. I'm sure with the temperatures
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and with the track being refrigerated and
sort of inclosed like that. We've seen
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such hard ice every day for racing
and I think they just kind of pushed
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it as hard as they could today
to try and put everything on the line
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and try and just get down as
fast as possible, and I think we
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saw that problem that they had been
having out of thirteen, but they kept
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it steals down. They did.
Yeah, they did great. I'm so
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proud of them, so proud.
It was so exciting. So of there.
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Yeah, most people don't know,
but they had a huge crash a
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couple days ago and training and actually
broke their sled and they had to get
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it fixed and so for them to
come back from that and put down some
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runs and then, you know,
I think, and like you said,
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they put it all out on the
line and that's what you have to do
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if you're going for a metal.
You have to put it all out there
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and you just go for it and
you you know it. Have to be
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pretty aggressive about it, and they
did. So that's really awesome. Yeah,
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and now they get to come home
Olympians. So so another thing that
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deserves to be talked about is Natalie
Geisenberger. She's always, always been the
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on the top. You know,
actually this year she didn't have a great
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season World Cup season. There were
you know, there was a point there
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early in the season where a lot
of people wondered would she make the Olympic
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team. Here she is. She
won the gold medal and the singles event
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and then again the team relay.
And this is all after having a baby
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after the last Olympics. You know, I know you guys are pretty young
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and you haven't thought, maybe haven't
had a thought about starting a family,
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but I think you guys can probably
like sense how important this is for women
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in sport. You know, First
Alison Felix. This you know in track
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and field, Alana Myers, tailor
and Bob sled, Natalie Geisenberger and luge
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like this is unseen an unheard of
before. Like it's pretty cool. Yeah,
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for sure it's gonna give women in
sport more longevity, because I know
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a lot of women decide to leave
the sport to start families and now you
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can go back to sport and have
a successful Olympics. It's incredible to see,
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you know, these women sort of
prove so many people wrong and just
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be able to kill it like that, MMM, when there's such like a
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perception that that's not really how athletes
are. Yeah, but they can just
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they do it and they do it
well, and she did it with gold
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medals. Yeah, that's right.
Yeah, it's incredible. It's pretty incredible.
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Yeah, it's good to have that
kind of representation. Yeah, definitely.
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So I is there anything you guys
wanted to talk about that we didn't
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add that I didn't get a chance
to ask? I would have to say
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something that happened in these Olympics for
lug that hasn't happened many years would be
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summer Britcher bringing back the knuckle paddle. It my goodness through guys. Yeah,
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she broke her finger at the SEGULDA
World Cup when she had a big
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crash and it was the Middle Finger, which in you know, she showed
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off some sweet pictures of that middle
thing style and I just like she also.
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I saw the picture the x rays, and I was like that's like
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for real, like that looks so
painful. And Yeah, I don't think
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we've seen knuckle spikes since two thousand
and six at the I mean most recent
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so yeah, summer put you know, it's tough when you get injured to
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work through it, and she did
exactly that. I could put it all
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out there. She did it and
she did it well. She had some
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good start times with those. I
don't know how she did that. I
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was incredible, pretty cool, definite. It was fun to watch. You
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know, I wish they could go
now and watch all sorts of competition.
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They might be able to get a
little bit in. I mean the big
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part about the Olympics is after your
races are done, is watching your other
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team, USA sports, compete and
cheering them on. But because of COVID
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I know they're coming home pretty soon, actually so but hopefully they have.
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I'm I know they had a good
time and I can't wait until they get
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home and, like you said,
are they're all Olympians and it's very exciting.
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So well, I can't thank you
enough for coming on to chat today.
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Really, you know, you guys
are breaking down barriers as well for
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women, and I think that's something
to be really proud of. And you
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know I'm proud of you and and
I have an eleven year old daughter who
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I'm like. I could see her
being a bottom bottom women double person.
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So you know she's got my height
problems. Yeah, and if it wasn't
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for you, Ladies and Maya and
ran and like, it wouldn't happen.
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So thank you so much. Thank
you so much for having us. Yeah,
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thank you. I loved catching up
with Chavon Forgan and Sophie Kirkby last
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week after the Olympic team relay event. I Echo what they both said about
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being extremely proud of our athletes and
all the effort they've put into the sport
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over their lifetimes. Congratulations, Team
USA. I also meant what I said
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about not only the Olympic moms showing
the world what they can do, but
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how these women's doubles teams are revolutionizing
sport and we are here to witness it.
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It's so exciting to think about what
the future holds for female athletes thanks
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to these women. Next episode will
be out Thursday and it will feature junior
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world championship bronze medalist Matt griner about
his successful season and what he took away
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from the Olympic Games. Now that
the season is winding down, think about
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spreading the word to young kids in
your life about how they can try louge.
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There are both loge challenges on Ski
Hills and Whitecastle slider searches being scheduled
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as we speak. Go To us
a loge dotorg for more information. Thanks
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for listening to blank a podcast about
what it takes to win a lose race
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and the blink of an eye.
