Canadian luge team embracing 'home track advantage' at world championships

An unusual sight greeted Theo Downey as he slid into the finish dock at the luge world championships in Whistler, B.C., on Thursday — giant cut outs of his own face.

Seeing his girlfriend, parents and extended family cheering and waving was a welcome change for the Calgarian who's more used to racing in front of strangers thousands of kilometres from home.

"It was a good race. Lots of fun," Downey said. "Love racing at home."

"When we're in Europe, it kind of feels like we're the underdog," added his teammate, Dylan Morse. "We're like the foreigners racing in Europe. But here we have that home track advantage. We have all the people supporting us. It's really cool."

Hearing the roar of a hometown crowd was a special experience for Whistler's Embyr-Lee Susko.

"We can't necessarily see them all the time, but I've never heard so many cheers lining the entire track," she said. "And I was smiling while I was sliding. That doesn't happen very often, to actively be present in that. So it was incredible. It was really fun."

Calgary's Morse and Trinity Ellis of Pemberton, B.C., finished 11th in the mixed singles race Thursday, 0.914 seconds behind gold medallists Max Langenhan and Julia Taubitz of Germany. The pair tapped in one minute 22.354 seconds to take the first-ever world championship gold in mixed singles.

Jonathan Eric Gustafson and Emily Sweeney of the United States came second, just 0.095 seconds behind Langenhan and Taubitz. Austria's David Gleirscher and Madeleine Egle came in third.

The Americans' result mirrors the pair's first race of the year, at a World Cup stop in Lillehammer, Norway, where they finished second behind Langenhan and Taubitz.

"We started the season with that and now, world champs to have another