“We’re in this together”: Luge athletes Beattie Podulsky and Kailey Allan aim for historic women’s doubles debut
Beattie Podulsky’s Olympic journey started with a sign.
“I have a brother who does freestyle skiing, so we were kind of always at the hill,” Podulsky recalls of her introduction to luge at Canada Olympic Park in Calgary. “One day [when I was 10 or 11], we saw a little sandwich board sign that said, ‘Come! Do you want to be an Olympian?’ And here we are”.
Now, for Podulsky and her luge partner Kailey Allan, that dream is closer than ever, as the women’s doubles event is set to make its Olympic debut at Milano Cortina 2026.
Since luge joined the Olympic program at Innsbruck 1964, men’s singles, women’s singles, and doubles events have appeared at every Olympic Winter Games. The mixed team relay event debuted at Sochi 2014. Though the doubles event has always been open to athletes of any gender, no woman has ever competed in it at the Olympic Games.
Now, more than 60 years since luge athletes first became Olympians, excitement is high for the women’s doubles debut.
“This is going to be a shared experience for all of us,” said Allan. “I think it brings a big sense of community. I love all the friends that I’ve made in women’s doubles.”
“We’re kind of now growing as a sport and evening out with the men,” said Podulsky. “We’re all determined and ready to show up and show everyone what we got. We’re here, and we’re happy and excited to be the first ones to be doing this.”
Podulsky, 20, and Allan, 22, followed strikingly similar paths to the doubles sled. They both grew up in Calgary, juggling multiple sports until they found one that stuck. Like Podulsky, Allan started luge around age 10, trying it first at a summer camp at Canada Olympic Park before quickly moving on to a recruitment camp.
They both started in singles before transitioning into doubles in 2022, when the inclusion of women’s doubles at Milano Cortina 2026 was first announced. Podulsky enjoyed some international success with Embyr-Lee Susko during the 2023-24 season before the pair called it quits so Susko could focus on her singles career.
“She wasn’t ready to let it go. And I don’t think I was ready for her to let it go either, because she was just too good,” Podulsky explained. “So then I was mismatching around with people, trying to find a new partner. And Kailey was in the same boat. We kind of stumbled across each other and were like, yeah, let’s give it a shot.”
Podulsky and Allan partnered up in the summer of 2024, somewhat late in the quadrennial Olympic cycle but determined to make up for lost time.
“We meshed really well,” said Allan. “We have very much the same personality. We can call each other out when we need to, but we get along really well. We kind of just bounce off of each other.”
Though the pair didn’t struggle with chemistry, they had a more technical obstacle they had to overcome at the start.
In doubles luge, the top rider is strapped to the sled at the hips, while the bottom rider holds on to the straps attached to their partner’s arms as they steer the sled with a synchronized effort. In their previous doubles partnerships, both Podulsky and Allan had been in the bottom position. Podulsky ultimately decided to take the top position, a choice that she soon realized would require a whole new learning experience.
“I thought I knew doubles, and then I moved over to the top, and now I’m like, ‘oh, we’re relearning again’,” she said.
The differences between these two positions are night and day.
“On the bottom, you don’t see anything. You just use your peripherals and you go off of the top person’s signal to move your shoulders. You put all the trust into the top person,” Podulsky described. “And then the top person kind of has that role of, ‘I can see where I’m going, so I’m going to put us where I want to put us’.”
“On the tracks, you really have to work with each other, through each other, and with the sled all the way down,” said Allan.
Trust is everything in a luge partnership.
“I have someone else’s life in my hands,” Podulsky said frankly. “If something happens, we’re both responsible.”
With athletes reaching speeds upwards of 140 km/hr, this is not an exaggeration. And it’s a responsibility these young adults take seriously.
“[It’s about] being able to lift each other up and go again. I know when she’s nervous, she knows when I’m nervous. We try to talk each other down, pump each other up. [We know] when to help each other out.” Allan said.
“Sharing this moment with someone else, it’s different. It’s a big switch on the mind,” said Podulsky. “We crashed in a World Cup [last season], and I was absolutely mad at myself. Kailey was like, ‘Why? That’s on us. Together, we did that. You can’t hold all the blame for it.’ So she’s been really good at helping me switch to the mindset of, ‘We’re in this together, and good or bad, it’s gonna happen.’”
Together, Podulsky and Allan finished the 2024-25 season—their first together—sliding into the top eight in women’s doubles at the FIL World Championships where they helped Canada win bronze in the team relay.
Now, with Milano Cortina 2026 just two months away, they’re determined to have another successful season.
They started the season off strong in late November with a top 15 finish at the Olympic Test Event of the brand new track in Cortina. That was followed by a career-best fifth-place finish at the FIL World Cup opener in Winterberg, Germany one week later.
“We still have a lot of work to do, but we know if we show up and we do the best that we can do to build each other up, we can achieve something,” said Allan.
After all, they have history to make.
