Seth Coates, a 16 year old sophomore at Potsdam High School, took home two medals in last weekend’s North American Continental Cup luge races at Mount Van Hoevenberg in Lake Placid.

Coates won a bronze medal in Friday’s race and a gold medal on Saturday. The Continental Cup races featured youth athletes (15-18 year olds) from USA, Canada, Puerto Rico, and Great Britain.

Coates competed in four Youth A World Cup races in Germany in December, ranking 16th in the world. Despite a strong World Cup performance, Coates narrowly missed the cut for the Youth Olympic Games in Gangwon, South Korea.

Seven athletes will represent Team USA in Luge at the games: womens’ doubles team Sadie Martin (Vermontville, N.Y.) and Haidyn Bunker (West Farmington, Ohio), men’s doubles team Nathan Bivins (Castleton, N.Y.) and Wolfgang Lux (Swanton, Vt.), womens’ singles athletes Elizabeth Kleinheinz (Santa Clara, Calif.) and Talia Tonn (Cecil, Wisc.), and men’s athlete Orson Colby (Riverton, Utah).

International travel continues for Coates this winter as he joins the Junior National Team (18-21 year olds) for more training and competition. He will travel to Winterberg, Germany, Bludenz, Austria, Igls, Austria, and St. Moritz, Switzerland to compete in Junior World Cup races. Coates will also travel toLillehammer, Norway for the Junior World Championships in February.

Asked how he got his start in the sport of luge, Coates explained “When we moved to Northern New York some friends who were involved in luge asked us if we wanted to try it. We of course said yes!  I joined Adirondack Luge Club for a couple of years and then was selected to USA Luge’s Development team in 2020.”

Coates will return to Lake Placid, to compete in Norton Junior Nationals races in March, 2024.

For more information on USA Luge, visit www.usaluge.org. To learn more about the Adirondack Luge Club, visit www.adk-luge.com.