The Longest Road to the Shortest Goal

Emanuel Rieder and Simon Kainzwaldner won gold in Cortina. What came before was anything but straightforward.

On 11 February 2026, Emanuel Rieder and Simon Kainzwaldner crossed the finish line at the Pista Olimpica Eugenio Monti in Cortina d'Ampezzo – and still did not know whether it would be enough for gold. They had to wait. Two teams followed. Then Mueller/Haugsjaa of the USA made decisive errors on their second run, and with a time of 1:45.086 minutes – 0.068 seconds ahead of Thomas Steu and Wolfgang Kindl of Austria, 0.090 ahead of three-time Olympic champions Wendl and Arlt of Germany – it was settled: gold for Italy. It was the first Olympic medal for both of them, Italy's first men's doubles Olympic gold since Lillehammer 1994, and it came on home ice. Rieder was 32, Kainzwaldner 31.

"As an athlete, the Olympics are the highest goal and the greatest dream," says Simon Kainzwaldner. "What mattered was being there at all – at a home Olympics. We had to qualify, and that was a special and gruelling road. It has to be."

A Fresh Start

Kainzwaldner and Rieder have been racing together since 2018. Rieder had previously competed as a singles slider before making the switch to doubles after Pyeongchang 2018. Kainzwaldner had a different partner until then – until that partner was forced to end his career in the preparation for the 2017/18 season. The first Olympic dream fell apart. Then came Rieder. The partnership worked well from the very beginning. As early as 2020, they won silver in the sprint at the World Championships – their first shared international success. They qualified for Beijing 2022 and added two more European Championship bronze medals in the team relay, in Sigulda 2023 and Innsbruck 2024. "For me personally, Beijing was a milestone," says Kainzwaldner. "I had won the Youth Olympic Games in 2012 – I look back on those emotions with joy and goosebumps – and I thought to myself: if a 'birthday party' feels like that, how overwhelming must the real Olympics be?!"

Beijing showed them where they stood: sixth place. "We could see that we were good – but we had already told ourselves before the season's peak event that we probably wouldn't make it all the way to the top," Kainzwaldner recalls. "We went into the race with that certainty, and it held us back a little. Maybe there was more in us."

What followed put the entire project to the test. After changes in the support team, Rieder and Kainzwaldner had to reorient themselves and rebuild much of what they had established. Both had developed great trust in a longstanding serviceman, which made the transition all the more difficult. "It was a phase where a lot had to be reorganised," says Kainzwaldner. "I seriously considered ending my career in 2024." Then came the decision: give everything or stop.

Emanuel Rieder sums up the thinking of the pair: "It was simply about giving everything – if we qualified, all would be well. And if not, we wanted to fail in a way that left us with no regrets."

OlyMission

What followed was a project that may not be unique in luge, but is certainly rare. Rieder and Kainzwaldner built a network that extended far beyond sport. The South Tyrolean Sports Aid Foundation was on board with the "Great Season" project, and South Tyrolean entrepreneurs joined as partners. "We presented the OlyMission like a startup – among other places at the Tyrolean Business Angels," says Rieder. "More and more people came on board. They pushed us every single day – in training and in the workshop."

One month before the decisive qualifying race, Kainzwaldner carried one of his closest friends to the grave. "I was shaken, but we made it through qualifying. Arriving at the Olympic Village was my first victory. Every single day I soaked it all in and savoured it."

The Pope, Meloni – and Then the Family

After gold came invitations: from Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, from President Mattarella, from the Minister of Defence, from the Pope. There were celebrations and honours in – to put it somewhat dramatically – every village in South Tyrol. "When people share your joy and honour what you have done, that is a wonderful thing," says Rieder. "But it was not always easy either – the many commitments cost time with the family." Kainzwaldner sees it the same way. "There were many moving invitations. But what I enjoyed most was celebrating with the people who had known the entire journey – not just the moment of the medal."

What Comes Next

The motivation remains in both of them. The duo is working deliberately on their start. "The runs themselves are not going badly. The start is our biggest area for improvement – that is where the potential lies," says Rieder. The season's goal is clear: the World Championships in Innsbruck-Igls in February 2027. "We want to be in the fight for medals there – and beyond that, to be consistently at the front throughout the World Cup."

Alongside training there was time for family and shared holidays – Rieder was drawn to Jesolo and Greece. But now, as the days grow shorter, the nights longer and cooler, and thoughts of the next winter begin to take hold, the gaze shifts from water to ice. Rieder and Kainzwaldner will certainly be on the start list for 2026/27. "But I want to enjoy the sport more, to look for constructive input, to observe and to grow," says Kainzwaldner. The next major goal is already set: the French Alps 2030 – the Olympic Winter Games in four years. For this next mission, Rieder and Kainzwaldner intend to continue their development path consistently. Microgate from Bolzano is already on board as a new technology partner, working with them to analyse the start movement and its sequences with ever greater precision.

But, as Kainzwaldner puts it: "A road is like an ice track. It always has curves and corners – who knows what it will bring."

Cortina was not an ending. It was the opening of the next journey.