Women’s Doubles Luge Olympic Debut: Watch For Chevonne Forgan & Sophia Kirkby

In 2022, at the first world championship for women’s doubles luge, Team USA’s Chevonne Forgan and Sophia Kirkby won a bronze medal. They had been sliding together for less than two years.

They won another bronze medal at the 2024 FIL World Championships. With a slew of world cup medals in their collection as well, they head into the 2026 season as favorites to win a medal in women’s doubles luge Olympic debut — and perhaps the team relay as well.

Forgan, 25, and Kirkby, 24, got their start in luge as kids. From Australia, Forgan moved to the U.S. with her family when she was 11. Her father, the vice president of engineering for Deltek, was transferred here. Soon after, she tried sliding at a USA Luge Slider Search near her home in Chelmsford, Massachusetts.

“My mom found out about [the Slider Search] and thought it would be something fun for me and my siblings to do to keep us busy,” says Forgan, who smiles easily. “We didn’t realize it was an actual tryout.”

USA Luge then invited Forgan to a development camp at its headquarters in Lake Placid, New York. She loved the thrill and adrenaline of sliding on ice.

“I’d never done anything like it,” she says. “I was addicted.”

Kirkby started luge even earlier than her teammate. From Ray Brook, New York, a hamlet outside of Lake Placid, Kirkby witnessed a street luge competition at the Olympic Jumping Complex when she was seven. That winter, her dad — who had been a bobsledder with the U.S. Air Force — took Kirkby to the track at nearby Mt Van Hoevenberg. She was too young to start bobsledding, so instead, she tried luge.

“I did not like the first run,” she states. “I hit so many walls, and for an eight-year-old, that’s not fun. But I kept doing it, and I started accelerating and doing well at the competitions.”

Forgan and Kirkby competed in singles luge for many years, sliding in junior world cups and junior world championships. Their final season sliding as juniors in 2019/2020, Kirkby ranked ninth on the junior world cup tour, Forgan 20th (after missing a couple of races).

Before the next season started, former USA Luge coach Robert Fegg suggested the two pair together for doubles, which was about to make its world cup debut. In doubles luge, a height difference between the athletes benefits aerodynamics, with the shorter athlete on the bottom and taller on top. NBC Olympics lists Forgan’s height at 5’10”, Kirkby at 5’3”.

“We fit the bill!” Forgan brightly points out. “We said we would give it a go, and it was so much fun.”

The two reveled in the challenge.

“It was like relearning how to do luge,” adds Forgan. “All the thrill and excitement came back. And then you get the added benefit of a partnership. You get to do it with your friend.”

On June 14, 2022, the IOC added women’s doubles luge to the 2026 Olympic program. It was Kirkby’s 21^st birthday. She celebrated at a Lake Placid bar named after a famous turn on the Mt Van Hoevenberg track: Zig Zags Pub.

Women’s doubles luge debuted on the world cup during the winter of 2021/2022, and Forgan and Kirkby showed early promise, with two world cup podiums and the world championship bronze medal. Over the next three seasons, they added more world cup and world championship hardware and climbed in the rankings. They ended the 2024/2025 season ranked third overall.

“Chevonne and I are a good team because we have developed a better understanding of each other over the years,” explains Kirkby. “When we were singles athletes, we were good drivers. So when we were put together, it was a learning curve, but overall, I think we have a good understanding of how we drive and navigate a sled together.”

“We’ve both worked very hard on the sliding, the training, and the partnership to get where we want to be,” adds Forgan.

They have worked particularly hard on their starts — key in luge as it's the only time sliders can directly impart speed into their run. USA Luge’s indoor start tracks lets sliders practice starts during the off season.

The work has paid off. At the most recent start championship, held annually in September as a season kick-off, Forgan and Kirkby set the women’s doubles start record on both the traditional start and reaction start (important in team relays). This past season, the duo set four start and two track records around the world, most notably on the difficult track in Sigulda, Latvia.

“We have fewer little imperfections on the track, which has definitely helped us get some of the record times that we have now,” explains Kirkby, whom Forgan fondly describes as “the numbers gal.”

During the 2023/2024 season, women’s doubles luge became part of the team relay. In this event the women’s singles slider starts. When she hits a pad at the finish, it opens a gate at the start, and the men’s doubles team does its run, followed by the men’s singles slider, then the women’s doubles team.

The U.S. has always been strong in the relay. Since the relay’s world cup debut 14 years ago, the U.S. has collected 25 podium finishes — one of them a win. But since women’s doubles became part of the world cup relay two years ago, the U.S. has earned almost a quarter of those top-three finishes.

Women’s doubles was added to the team relay at the 2024 world championships, and the U.S. claimed a silver medal.

Forgan sees the relay as an opportunity to bring something to the team. Kirkby looks at the data.

“Chevonne and I have shown many times that we have some of the best reaction starts,” Kirkby says. “For example, at world championships two years ago, we had the number one reaction time by at least 0.06 of a second.”

When Kirkby is waiting for the U.S.’s relay to begin, she practices her reaction time with rubber bands on the sidelines.

Luge’s team relay has been an Olympic event since 2014. Team USA’s best finish in the event is fourth at the 2018 Winter Games (0.103 of a second from the podium).

Forgan and Kirkby can feel the intensity of the Olympic season approaching. The two were one of the teams that slid on the 2026 Olympic track in Cortina last spring — describing it as unique, with longer curves and transitions (similar to the new tracks at the past two Olympic Winter Games).

Their first goal is to make the 2026 U.S. Olympic Team, which will be named in mid-January after the first five world cups. If they do make it to Milan Cortina in February, they are looking forward to bringing more awareness to women’s doubles luge.

Kirkby runs her own ceramic business — called Kirkby Luge & Clay — and has made women’s doubles luge pins to share with teammates, fellow competitors, and fans in the upcoming season, and at the Olympic Games. She has also created pins highlighting women’s singles luge, bobsled, skeleton, and hockey to promote those sports as well.

For Forgan, she is most excited for the new challenge that an Olympic season brings, and “to feel the Olympic spirit.”