Olympic Luge History

Competitive luge racing began in Switzerland in the late 1800's but it would be another 60
years before Canadian competitors took up the sport. It wasn't until the late 1950's that
bobsledder Vic Emery introduced the sport to Canadians at a ski area in Quebec. Emery,
who would go on to win Canada's only Olympic bobsleigh medal to date at the 1964 Winter
Games in Innsbruck, Austria, was also the first Canadian Luge champion.

Despite a long history and well established competitions in Switzerland, Germany and
Austria, luge did ot appear at the Olympic Games until 1964. Until then, most luge
competitions took place on iced alpine roads and sometimes on 'tracks' with banked side
walls. The traditional form of the sport evolved into the two disciplines of Olympic luge
and Natural luge.


Olympic Games

Entry into the Olympics marked the beginning of a new era in the development of the
sport as racing switched to artificial ice tracks with steeply-banked curves. From the
outset, European countries have dominated the sport. All Olympic medals from 1964
until 2002 have been won by four countries: Germany, Austria, Italy and the former
USSR. In recent years, however, other nations have been making inroads, most
noticeably the United States which holds Olympic medals in the doubles competition
at the 2002 Winter Games.


Canadian Participation into 2010 and beyond...

Canada did not participate in the inaugural Olympic competition of 1964, but made its
debut four years later at the 1968 Winter Games in Grenoble, France, posting a team
high 31st in men's competition and 12th in the women's event. Since then, the Canadian
competitors have gained a lot of ground in international competition Canada's best
Olympic results are Marie Claude Doyon's 7th place finish in the women's event at the
Calgary Games in 1988, Bruce Smith's and Kyle Connelly’s11th place finishes in men's
singles at Lake Placid in 1980 and Salt Lake City respectively and a fifth place in doubles
posted by Chris Moffat and Eric Pothier at Salt Lake City in 2002.

The sport of Luge has seen a rapid increase in popularity since the 1988 Olympic Winter Games staged in Calgary. The awarding of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games to Vancouver has reignited the passion of Canadians in winter sports and luge is already seeing greater participation by young Canadians. Ever increasing media coverage has been a direct result of world class results our Junior and Senior team athletes have achieved since 1988. For the first time ever in the sport of luge, Canada is standing on the podium.


Text courtesy of Luge Canada.