As the 25th Winter Olympic games builds up to a climax, one Swanage woman is watching the events with extra interest – as she was the first woman to ever represent Great Britain in the luge event.
Joanna Weaver, who grew up in Swanage but now lives in Harman’s Cross in Dorset, took part in the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, USA, alongside such greats as figure skater Robin Cousins and ice dancers Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean.
Athletes at the opening ceremony of the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Olympics
Daredevil spirit inherited from her father
Despite a singular lack of mountains or snow in Swanage, Joanna says that her daredevil spirit inherited from her SAS father, Major Peter Weaver, turned out to be all she needed to become a natural on the luge run.
Having been talent spotted on a beach in Greece by British Alpine skier Michel de Carvalho, she was persuaded to try her hand at lugeing in Austria and then to join the British women’s team.
Less than two years later, she qualified for Lake Placid and became Britain’s first ever woman to take part in the fastest sport at the Winter Olympics – where athletes hurtle down an ice track at speeds of over 90 miles an hour,
Since it was introduced to the Winter Olympics in 1964 at Innsbruck, Team GB has never yet won a medal in the sport, but its best finish in the luge came at Lake Placid in 1980 where Derek Prentice and Christopher Dyason finished 14th in the open doubles, and Joanna finished in a very respectable 23rd place.
How the Swanage Times reported the event in January 1980
“People call it a tea tray”
Joanna Weaver said:
“In 1978, I was working in Greece cooking for a family during the summer holidays, and in my spare time I would windsurf and mono waterski.
“A man, who turned out to be an Olympic downhill skier and also a former GB luge representative, approached me and said; ‘You’re a brilliant water skier, I’ve been watching you – fearless on water! Ever tried luge?’
“I was quite shy then and had never heard of luge, but he wasn’t going to give up and told me that people call it a tea tray but it was a type of sled which weighs over three stone!
“He explained that Team GB needed women for the 1980 Olympics and invited me to a beginners’ week in Austria. I hesitated, as I had work commitments, and I thought that my father would need convincing.”
Joanna, pictured on the luge course, did two weeks’ of training in Austria before being taken on to the British team
“Remember you have no brakes!”
Joanna added:
“But this man drove to Swanage from London, met my father and won his approval for me to try – and training hooked me instantly, once I had got over the initial fear of hurling myself down an ice chute.
“After a couple of runs I was showing natural talent on the Austrian track, so the manager and Russian trainer urged me to join the British team for the season and take part in the world championships in West Germany after just one week’s training.
“My father offered to sponsor my first year, and the German national papers thought I was mad, competing against West and East Germans, Italians, and Austrians, yet I posted competitive times.
“I learned from a former British bobsleigh Olympian how to handle the luge – you had to steer like you were in a racing car at Brands Hatch, keep the lowest line possible, and remember you have no brakes! G-forces have a huge pull on you, so you have to get the correct line.”
Luge has been dubbed the fastest sport on ice, and lugers frequently exceed 90 miles an hour
Looked like a car crash victim
Joanna did have a few accidents during her early training, but never broke anything – until one horrific crash which could have ended her budding career.
Travelling at more than 80 miles an hour, her luge clipped the ice wall and flew off the track on a bend. Joanna landed face first on the track, shattering her visor and knocking her unconscious.
She was strapped to a stretcher and rushed to hospital, with shocked witnesses saying that she looked like a car crash victim.
Miraculously there were no bones broken, just cuts and bruises, and Joanna said that thoughts of everything her father had endured during World War Two got her back on the ice.
Joanna’s official Winter Olympics certificate has pride of place in her Harmans Cross home
Completed all four runs for 23rd place
Joanna Weaver said:
“My father had been personally recruited for the SAS by Paddy Mayne, was one of the few survivors of Operation Bulbasket where 34 of his colleagues were killed, and helped to liberate the Belsen concentration camp, so I felt I was able to channel his SAS grit.
“I qualified for the Lake Placid games in 1980 as I had been putting in some excellent times, but was only told I would be part of the GB squad three weeks before the Olympics.
“I did well in the first run, coming 14th, and completed all four runs for 23rd place overall, while my teammate Avril Walker did not finish. Only two more British women took part in the luge, in 1984 and 1988, and there have been none since.
“At 90 mph, your world narrows to split second concentration and there’s pure exhilaration, though fear’s always there, familiar as breathing. I was ecstatic to arrive in one piece, then I’d glance up at the times, thrilled to be with the very best, just hundreds of a second apart. It was utter magic.”
Joanna Weaver, pictured at her home in Harmans Cross
Joanna Weaver, pictured before the Lake Placid Winter Olympics in 1980
“Built to be a federal state prison”
Joanna added:
“All the GB Olympians met at Heathrow that year, dressed in official Olympic blazers, dark blue trousers, blue moon boots, faux fur grey hats and red ties. British Airways flew us to New York, then we took buses to the Olympic Village in New York State.
“It was purposely built to be turned into a federal state prison after we used it first, but our every need was catered for and we really enjoyed the experience.
“I was with Christopher Dean, Jayne Torvill and Robin Cousins that year, and our luge team captain Jeremy Palmer-Thomkinson was flag bearer, having been a veteran of many Olympics.
“It was an amazing opening ceremony, we were the only nation marching in on foot like a regimented army, swinging our heads to salute the Olympic president and heads of state as we passed. We really stood out!”
The opening ceremony at the Winter Olympics 2026
Fastest sport in the Winter Olympics
Luge refers both to the sport and the sled that athletes use to race down the track, and unlike bobsleigh or skeleton, lugers start the run seated, using handles to propel themselves forward at the top of the track.
As the race begins, lugers lie down, face up and feet forward to create as little drag as possible, which results in luge being the fastest sport in the Winter Olympics.
They steer using shoulder pressure or their calf muscles to direct the luge’s runners, and the tracks are specially designed to increase a luger’s speed over time with gravity – and the winner is simply the athlete who finishes with the fastest time after four runs.
At Milano Cortina 2026, the sport made more history as a women’s doubles category was introduced, although Team GB didn’t enter athletes in any of the luge events.
Further information
- All the latest from Milano Cortina 2026 is on the Team GB website
