Vladislav Antonov

Together with doubles partner Alexander Denisyev, Russia’s Vladislav Antonov has built a reputation as one of Russia’s greatest lugers. An Olympic medallist, world champion, European champion, and history-maker, there is little in the luge world that he hasn’t achieved. Yet even now, as he nears fifteen years of international competitions, he continues to break new ground and win ever-bigger prizes: In early 2020, he and Denisyev completed their most successful season to date with gold medals at the European and World Championships and four World Cup stage wins.

It was at the World Cup where Antonov and his partner made history. During the 2018-19 tournament, they became the first post-Soviet Russians to win a World Cup stage — fittingly, the race they won was in the Russian city of Sochi. The roots of their success, however, lie further back, in the international junior tournaments of the early 2010s. Antonov first competed on the world stage with Denisov at the 2008 World Junior Championships, and it was as juniors that they won their first doubles gold, at the 2011 European Junior Championships. In 2014, at the same time that they graduated to senior competitions, they represented Russia at the Winter Olympics for the first time, winning silver as part of the relay team.

Since then, Antonov and Denisyev have won a medal at a major tournament every year either for doubles or the relay. 2020 proved a record medal haul when they took two medals at the World Championships and one from the Euros. Their partnership will doubtless prove fruitful for many years to come.