Edney wins historic bronze at luge Olympic test event
Sam Edney made history on Sunday, becoming the first Canadian to stand on a World Cup luge podium in the men’s singles event outside of Canada.
Edney won bronze at the Alpensia Sliding Centre during the Olympic test event of the PyeongChang 2018 venue, finishing with a two-run total time of 1 minute 37.694 seconds to place behind Italy’s Dominik Fischnaller (1:37.229) and Germany’s Andi Langenhan (1:37.378).
Sam Edney races to third at the PyeongChang Olympic test event on Feb. 19, 2017. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
It is by far Edney’s top result of the season, improving on his previous best 12th place finish at the Whistler World Cup in December. Edney’s last big breakthrough came in December 2014 when he became the first Canadian man to win a World Cup luge race, doing so on his home track in Calgary. He had taken last season away from the sport to focus on his education as well as give his body a chance to rest and recover before returning to take one more run at an Olympic podium.
The three-time Olympian and elder statesman of the Canadian team was part of the agonizing fourth place finish in the team relay at Sochi 2014 but has contributed to multiple World Cup and world championship medals in the event over the last few years.
