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Lake Placid, NY
Sophia Kirkby's path to becoming one of the world's elite women's doubles luge athletes began in her backyard in Ray Brook, New York. Growing up near Lake Placid surrounded by Olympic history, she witnessed a street luge competition at age 7 that sparked her curiosity. Her father James, who had been a bobsledder with the U.S. Air Force, brought her to Mount Van Hoevenberg the following winter. Sliding became their weekend ritual and bonding experience. Kirkby quickly demonstrated natural talent, and at age 10, USA Luge invited her to join their development team.
By age 16, Kirkby had earned a spot on the junior national team, competing in singles luge and winning the 2020 USA Luge National Championships and Youth A National Championships in 2018 and 2019. In 2020, when Kirkby finished second to Chevonne Forgan at the U.S. junior championships, USA Luge coach Robert Fegg suggested they pair up for doubles. The transition required Kirkby to relinquish driving control and learn to navigate from the bottom position, looking around her partner's head. They committed fully to doubles for the 2021-22 season. Despite having slid together for less than two years, they won bronze at the inaugural FIL Women's Doubles World Championships in Winterberg, Germany in January 2022.
The 2024-25 season marked a historic breakthrough when they became the first U.S. women's doubles luge team to win a world cup race in Lillehammer, Norway, in November 2024. For Kirkby, the victory was bittersweet—her father had passed away five months earlier in June 2024 after battling prostate cancer. James had been his daughter's biggest fan, driving her to practices and staying up until 3 a.m. to watch competitions even when gravely ill. Before his death, he recorded voice messages and wrote encouraging notes that Sophia now carries by writing his words on her luge gloves.
Beyond luge, Kirkby has developed a profound passion for ceramics and pottery, which she began around the same time as luge. She creates Adirondack-themed mugs, Olympic pins and earrings, finding that pottery provides creative balance to luge's precision. Following her father's death, hand-crafting pottery has helped her grieve and develop a mindfulness practice. She even hand-crafted thousands of ceramic pins featuring women's doubles luge designs for the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026.
At the Olympic Winter Games Milan Cortina 2026, the sliding sports — bobsled, skeleton, and luge — will be held at the new Cortina Sliding Centre in Cortina d’Ampezzo. The facility opened to sliding this fall. It’s located in Cortina d’Ampezzo, 257 mil...
When Emily Fischnaller (née Sweeney) first tried luge, some of her young teammates were not even born yet. But the 32-year-old is not ready to retire. Far from it. After winning USA Luge’s start championships in September, she is on her way to qualifyi...
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...
USA Luge's Emily Sweeney could call multiple states in the Northeast her home. While she spent significant time in Maine and Connecticut, she often attributes her hometown to Lake Placid, New York. It is a small mountain town known primarily for two th...
The four-time Olympian announced his retirement ahead of this weekend’s world cup in Lake Placid, New York.
