Summer Britcher, Emily Sweeney eye first Olympic women's doubles luge

Americans Summer Britcher and Emily Sweeney, who own a combined five Olympic singles luge appearances, are joining forces for the debut of women’s doubles on the World Cup this season as the event’s Olympic debut nears.

“When the IOC announced womens doubles will be in the 2026 Olympics in pursuit of gender equality we decided to be all in,” Sweeney . “Since Summer and I started training for doubles together in July we have been living in the learning curve. And I’m loving it. We’ll see how our experience in singles transfers over in the first World Cup.”

The first World Cup women’s doubles event is Dec. 3 in Igls, Austria.

In June, the IOC announced that Olympic doubles luge will be divided into separate events for men and women in 2026. Doubles was previously open to men and women, but no women ever competed at the Olympics.

“Back in May we decided to take on this challenge together, and then we waited with fingers crossed for the International Olympic Committee’s ruling on Women’s Doubles inclusion in the 2026 Olympics,” Britcher posted. “In June, they ruled in favor of gender equality and inclusion, and everything was set into motion.”

In December 2019, Canadians Caitlin Nash and Natalie Corless became the first female team to compete in a World Cup doubles race. Women’s doubles was added to the junior World Cup last year. A women’s doubles world championship was held last January. German teams went one-two. American teams finished third and fourth.

Britcher, who owns the U.S. luge record of five World Cup singles wins, and Sweeney, the 2019 World bronze medalist in singles, will not compete in singles and doubles every weekend. Singles will be the priority.

“I’ve heard for a really long time people compare [singles] to driving a Ferrari and then getting behind the wheel of a bus and trying to race [doubles],” Britcher said. “I wouldn’t say it’s a totally accurate description, but it’s definitely different.”

Britcher has the top Olympic finish between the two of 15th from the 2014 Sochi Games. Erin Hamlin is the lone U.S. woman to win an Olympic luge medal, bronze in 2014.

Chris Mazdzer, who added doubles to his plate after taking singles silver at the 2018 Olympics, plans to race a partial season and only in singles, according to USA Luge. Mazdzer, 34, wants to spend more time at home with wife Mara and 18-month-old son Nicolai.

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Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier haven’t decided if they’ll compete beyond this season, so Saturday may have been their farewell to the U.S. Figure Skating Championships.

If so, they went out as dominant winners, the first pair in their 30s to win nationals in more than 50 years.

Knierim, 31, and Frazier, 30, took their second U.S. title together, totaling 227.97 points to prevail by 31.11 over Emily Chan and Spencer Howe. They led by a gaping 15.1 points after Thursday’s short.

Knierim and Frazier were solid after errors on their opening jumping combination in Saturday’s free skate. They broke their own pairs’ margin of victory record from the 2021 U.S. Championships under a scoring system implemented in 2006. Knierim appeared to wipe away tears backstage.

Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea bagged bronze to likely round out the three-pair team for March’s world championships.

FIGURE SKATING NATIONALS: Full Scores | Broadcast Schedule

Knierim and Frazier considered retiring after last season, after they missed nationals due to Frazier’s COVID-19, petitioned onto the Olympic team and posted the best Olympic finish for a U.S. pair (sixth) in 20 years.

They then became the first U.S. pair to win a world title since 1979, beating a field that didn’t include any of the top five from the Olympics.

They returned in part to compete as world champions and rank second in the world this season (during which the top Olympic pairs also haven’t competed). They will likely go into March’s worlds in Japan as underdogs to Japan’s Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara, who won their lone head-to-head this past fall at the Grand Prix Final.

Back in October, Knierim said this will probably be their last season competing together, though the pair also thought they were done last spring. They don’t expect to make a final decision until after a Stars on Ice tour this spring.

Knierim won her fifth U.S. title, tying the record for a pairs’ skater since World War II, joining Kyoka Ina, Tai Babilonia, Randy Gardner, Karol Kennedy and Peter Kennedy. Knierim’s first three titles, and her first Olympics in 2018, were with husband Chris, who retired in 2020. Knierim is the oldest woman to win a U.S. title in any discipline since 1995 (Renée Roca).

Silver medalists Chan and Howe continued their recent surge. After placing fourth at last season’s nationals, they rank sixth in the world this season. That’s despite summer injuries that left them unable to practice lifts (his shoulder) and throws (her foot) for a while.

Kam, 18, and O’Shea, 31, made the podium four months after becoming a pair and less than two months after a car Kim was riding in was hit by a drunk driver while crossing an intersection. The car was totaled, but Kim and O’Shea still competed days later in Croatia.

O’Shea won the 2016 U.S. title with Tarah Kayne, retired after they split in late 2020, then came back in 2021 with Chelsea Liu. They ranked sixth in the U.S. going into 2022 Nationals, but withdrew beforehand due to concussions both suffered in a November competition fall, according to Figure Skaters Online.

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Full scores and results from the 2023 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in San Jose …

Women
Gold: Isabeau Levito — 223.33
Silver: Bradie Tennell — 213.12
Bronze: Amber Glenn — 207.444. Starr Andrews — 188.245. Josephine Lee — 187.686. Lindsay Thorngren — 187.197. Clare Seo — 175.608. Gracie Gold — 173.989. Ava Ziegler — 167.7010. Sonja Hilmer — 166.4911. Gabriella Izzo — 166.4012. Ting Cui — 161.2713. Audrey Shin — 161.1214. Lindsay Wang — 154.9115. Michelle Lee — 145.2816. Elsa Cheng — 138.1317. Alexa Gasparotto — 129.41