Alex Gough slides into the Canadian Olympic record books
Calgary’s Alex Gough made Canadian history on Tuesday night in Sochi, posting this country’s best-ever result in Olympic luge.
The 26-year-old Gough came from behind to finish fourth in a time of 3:21.578. She had been sitting in fifth place after the first two runs on Monday, moving up after the third run earlier on Tuesday.
“I had great runs today and I knew it was going to be a long shot,” said Gough. “It was tough to make a mistake on the first run, I knew I was going to have to fight back from that.”
Three-time Olympian Gough was joined in the top-five by Olympic rookie Kimberley McRae, 21, who is also from Calgary. She surpassed her own expectations, having hoped for a top-10 result.
“Putting down consistent runs worked so well for me,” said McRae. “Now I’m going to keep working hard. I have a long summer ahead and we’ll see what happens next year.”
A third Calgarian, Arianne Jones, 23, was 13th.
The previous best result by a Canadian female luger at the Olympic Winter Games was Marie-Claude Doyon’s seventh place finish at Calgary 1988. Prior to Gough, Canada’s best-ever Olympic result in any luge event was the fifth place finish by doubles team Eric Pothier and Chris Moffat at Salt Lake City 2002.
On Thursday Gough gets a second chance at an Olympic medal as part of the inaugural team relay.
“I’m going to come out and give my best for the team relay, that’s always our best event.”
