Calgary (RWH) Ice is their element, just like their father's. But Maya and Zoe Lueders, unlike their father Pierre, prefer the horizontal version. Twenty-year-old Zoe and 17-year-old Maya are speed skaters, their father arguably Canada's most successful bobsledder. Maya qualified for the Junior World Championships in Inzell (GER) in the 2022/2023 season and finished ninth with the sprint team. Her younger sister recently finished second in the 500 meters at the Canadian Winter Games in Halifax.
"Do your own thing," her father always advised, Zoe says. If that's skeleton or bobsledding or anything else, he'll support her, Zoe adds. The sisters had come to speed skating by chance. Mother Sandra had taken them to a World Cup at the Olympic Oval in Calgary in 2010. From then on, it was all about both of them. Zoe Lueders: "We were obsessed from the first minute."
Her father's achievements are impressive. In addition to gold in Nagano, Japan, Lueders won two World Championship titles in 2-man bobsled and a total of eight World Championship medals. Last winter, the now 52-year-old was coach of the Australian women's bobsled team. Breeana Walker finished fourth at the monobob World Championships in St. Moritz. ©RWH2023
Photos: Chris Dornan & IBSF/Viesturs Lacis
