On their first day of a get-to-know-you summer trip together, Kailey Allan saw Beattie Podulsky get scared by a spider web and fall down a hill.
The Calgarians will be the first women representing Canada in women’s doubles luge, making its Olympic debut at the Cortina Sliding Centre in Italy. Women’s doubles Wednesday is a two-run event.
Allan, 22, and Podulsky, 20, didn’t know each other well before they slid down a track together for the first time in October of 2024.
They tried to develop chemistry and communication on the fly in their inaugural season as a duo.
The women decided to work on those elements of their partnership by taking a trip together last summer to New Zealand, where they drove around and lived in a van for two weeks.
“She touches a spider web on a fence, she falls down a hill, and then she rips open her Croc on a nail, her sock, and cut her toe on the first day we were there,” Allan recalled. “I was barely even out of the van, and I just saw her tumble down the hill.”
Explained Podulsky: “I got scared. I wanted to pet the cows, so I pulled over, and I touched the fence and there was a spider web, and I went ‘ah!’ and I cut my toe on some random metal thing, and I ripped my sock and my Croc.”
Nothing like a moment of physical comedy to see each other in a new light.
“We definitely improved our communication skills,” Allan said.
Women’s doubles made its world championship debut in 2022. Doubles was previously open to both male and female athletes, but only men ever competed in it since luge became an Olympic sport in 1964.
“I’m glad that we get to be the first ones to do it and get to show our faces and show that it is capable for women to do doubles,” Podulsky said. “It’s definitely harder than singles.”
Two bodies on the sled — Allan on the bottom and Podulsky on the top— instead of one is less forgiving of mistakes. Their learning curve has its share of bruises.
“You tend to hit the walls harder, you have more weight to throw around,” Podulsky explained. “When you unfortunately flip over, the top person is strapped in, so you’re just riding on your face. In singles, you can normally just flip over and sit on your butt and go.”
The duo competed in just two World Cups together before helping Canada win team relay bronze at the 2025 world championship in Whistler, B.C.
“We all put down really solid runs, hit the pad at the bottom, and things kind of just fell into place after that,” Allan said.
“It was a crazy, exciting surprise by the end.”
The Olympic team relay is Thursday in Cortina.
Allan and Podulsky learned to slide on Calgary’s sliding track from the 1988 Olympic Games before it closed in 2018.
They train in Calgary’s ice house and high-performance centre, and on the track in Whistler, but spend winter weeks in Europe training, competing and doing what Allan calls “sink laundry.”
The two women supplement their careers by working as restaurant servers in Calgary.
“It’s whatever jobs we can pick up during the summer to support ourselves during the winter,” Allan said.
Their partnership still somewhat green, Allan and Podulsky opened the season by placing fifth in Winterberg, Germany, followed by a sixth-place finish in Park City, Utah, and another top-10 when the circuit returned to Winterberg in early January.
Their journey as a duo continues into the 2026 Olympic Games, where they will make Canadian sports history.
“It feels surreal to be in the inaugural Games for women’s doubles,” Allan said. “It’ll be really cool to get other young women in our sport into women’s doubles.”
