Ukraine wins 1st World Cup luge medal since ’09

Germany won a World Cup luge team relay on Sunday, with Austria finishing second. That’s not exactly breaking news. Those nations have the top two luge programs in the world right now.

The breaking news was Ukraine finished third — and how the war-torn nation got there.

Ukraine won its first World Cup luge medal in more than 16 years. The country’s relay team — singles sliders Yulianna Tunytska and Andriy Mandziy, along with Ihor Hoi and Nazarii Kachmar on one doubles sled, Olena Stetskiy and Oleksandra Mokh on the other — finished third in a race at Sigulda, Latvia.

“It’s amazing,” Tunytska said, holding a bouquet of flowers and blowing kisses on the award podium afterward.

The medal came in a very unconventional way. There were seven teams in the relay, but four didn’t finish. Ukraine finished almost four seconds behind Germany’s winning time — four seconds is a lifetime in luge, a sport where races are often decided by hundredths or even thousandths of a second — but out of the three finishers, it was third-fastest.

That meant bronze.

Ukraine has never won a sliding sport medal — not in luge, bobsled or skeleton — at the Olympics. Its most recent World Cup luge medal before Sunday was Natalia Yakushenko winning silver in a women’s singles race at Sigulda on Dec. 6, 2008. She also won bronze at the world championships in Lake Placid, New York, on Feb. 6, 2009.

“It was a curious race,” Mandziy said.

The U.S., Italy, Latvia and Poland all failed to finish the team relay, a variety of mishaps thwarting their chances.

The team relay is composed of four sleds — women’s singles, men’s singles, women’s doubles and men’s doubles — and a slider from each sled must not only finish getting down the track, but also they must reach up and hit a pad at the finish line that triggers a signal to the next sled it’s time to start. The best total, four-sled time wins.

U.S. women’s slider Emily Sweeney did not hit enough of the pad on her run, so the Americans were initially disqualified, but they were given a second chance due to a technical error with the timing system at the start. Sweeney crashed on her second try, and the Americans were out again.

Latvia also got a second chance because of the timing issues at the start and crashed out as well. Poland and Italy crashed out, and Ukraine was one of the three teams standing when it was all over.

“It’s a very emotional race,” Mandziy said. “Very emotional. … We’re very happy.”

In the World Cup luge men’s singles race, Nico Gleirscher of Austria was first, with Kristers Aparjods of Latvia second and Max Langenhan of Germany third. The top U.S. men’s finisher was Tucker West, who placed seventh.

In World Cup bobsled, the host nation won five of six available medals in a pair of races at Winterberg, Germany.

Germany swept the podium in a women’s bobsled race, with Lisa Buckwitz and Kira Lipperheide winning, Laura Nolte and Deborah Levi finishing second and Kim Kalicki and Leonie Fiebig placing third.

The top U.S. women’s sled — driven by Kaillie Humphries and pushed by Emily Renna — placed fourth. Lolo Jones, in her first World Cup bobsled race since 2021, was part of a 12th-place finish with driver Elana Meyers Taylor.

In the four-man race, Brad Hall of Britain drove to the win, with Germans Francesco Friedrich second and Adam Ammour third. The U.S. sled driven by Frank del Duca was 12th.