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Mawlana Hazar Imam commended the achievement in a message being shared via The Ismaili.

“I send my warm congratulations to Devin Wardrope for representing Canada in the 2026 Winter Olympics this week in Milan Cortina. His passion for luge and dedication to training for over a decade is commendable and shows that when a young person works hard anything is possible. Devin’s achievements are a source of pride for our Jamat, and an inspiration to us all. Bravo to Devin and his luge partner Cole Zajanski for their excellent performance.”

Just a few weeks ago, Devin didn’t even think he’d be attending the Games. In November 2025, he lay in a medical facility in Germany, his shoulder dislocated for the second time this season. He had only one thought: his Olympic dream was over.

Often described as the ‘Formula 1 of ice,’ luge is a high-speed winter sport in which athletes slide down a narrow, twisting ice track at speeds of up to 140 km/h, feet-first, while lying face up on a small sled with no brakes. It’s considered one of the most dangerous and precise sports in the Winter Olympic Games.

Athletes steer their sled by applying downward pressure with their calves, shifting their shoulder weight, and using subtle hand movements on the handles. Because the timing is so tight, races are measured to the thousandth of a second.

Devin started competing in luge at the age of 11 in Calgary, Alberta, after his parents encouraged him to try it. He enjoyed success at the local level and rose up the ranks, beginning to compete against veterans of the sport.

In 2022, at age 19, Devin and his doubles partner Cole narrowly missed out on qualifying for that year’s Winter Olympics in Beijing, having made it as far as the seventh and final race, but stumbling against their more accomplished teammates.

“It was heartbreaking in the moment,” Devin recalled, “getting that close… and missing out on that last race.”

They used the disappointment to fuel their preparation for future events, including the World Championships in Whistler, Canada, last year, where they impressed. But the pinnacle for every athlete is the Olympic Games, and Devin and Cole always had their sights set on Milan Cortina 2026.

“We knew what we had to do before this season started,” explained Devin. “We knew where we had to compete and what our goals were to qualify for the Games.”

But 2025 would test them in ways never anticipated. In October, on their very first day out on the ice, while sliding down the track, they crashed and Devin felt a searing pain: he had dislocated his shoulder.

“It was the first major injury I’ve ever had in sport, and that brought with it a ton of uncertainty about what our season was going to look like.”

He was advised to stay off the sled for six weeks for physiotherapy and rehabilitation, and work toward a condition to be able to compete again. But a mandatory qualification criteria was to attend Cortina and race on the actual Olympic track in late November. The pair had to be back in action in time to slide at that race.

It’s a pattern familiar in elite athletics – the compressed timeline between injury and qualification, where six weeks of rehab must accomplish what usually takes three months. For Devin, there was no margin for error.

Day after day, he worked to build mobility and strength, learning to trust his shoulder on practice runs. He managed to recover sufficiently to travel to Italy and take part to meet the requirement. But at the next qualifying event, in Germany, they had another crash and Devin dislocated his shoulder again.

“At that point,” he said, “I really didn’t know if I was gonna be here today, if I was even going to be at the Games.”

He thought it was over. For some athletes it would have been – working to recover from an injury is probably the most difficult aspect of a sporting career. Devin couldn’t afford another injury. But even so, he chose to move forward and persevere.

“A lot of days, you want to do anything but train or to go to a competition, and you just feel down on yourself. And there’s anything else in the world that you’d rather be doing, but you have to always just stick with it.”

But Devin wasn't alone. Due to what he calls “the community aspect of our Jamat,” he found support among his family, and among fellow Ismaili athletes through his association with the Global Encounters Talent Institute, who understood the struggle.

“They were just so supportive, especially when I had told them about my injury. It was always just constant checkups, asking if they could do anything to help, so they were definitely an important part of my support system.”

Devin and Cole managed to make it to the last race they needed to qualify, at the track in Winterberg, Germany, where they competed successfully. On 22 January 2026, they received the invite to join Team Canada at the Winter Olympics.

“I called up my mom and told her that we had met the criteria,” he said. “She was ecstatic, and especially because she had seen the journey that even just this year it took to get there, so it was definitely a very emotional moment for all of us.”

When Devin arrived at the Olympic Village in Cortina last week, the atmosphere was like nothing he had experienced before, the scale of it perhaps even a little daunting. He’s had a chance to meet athletes from different sports, and from all over the world, that he never would have crossed paths with. And then, there was the competition itself, something Devin and Cole had looked forward to for years. They finished 10th among a field of 17 doubles pairs.

“It’s always been a dream of mine to represent Canada on the world stage and be able to compete in front of all of my friends and family and of all Canada cheering us on. So it was just such an amazing experience to be able to get that and fulfil that dream.”

It wasn’t only his friends and family watching – many members of the global Jamat were following along, and learning about winter sports in the process.

“I met so many amazing people at the GE Festival, and they’re the same people who are sending me messages of encouragement and saying that they’re proud of me. So that has I think really helped me on the journey and especially through the lows of this year when things were uncertain and I didn’t know what would happen.”

For anyone interested in trying a new sport, Devin has some advice: “Take that first step,” he says – it might lead to unexpected rewards.

“Before my parents had signed me up for luge, I didn’t even know what it was. And they told me ‘you get to slide down a hill really fast.’ And I thought ‘that sounds fun – why don’t I give it a shot?’ And I took that first leap of faith, that first step, and it was one of the best things I’ve ever done.”