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Maya Yuen presenting to students at Alexander Forbes School, via Classroom Champions, on Oct. 29, 2026. (Image Credit: Erika Rolling)
By Erika Rolling
Classroom Champions

19-year-old Team Canada luge slider inspires local youth

Oct 30, 2026 | 1:19 PM

Students at Grande Prairie’s Alexander Forbes School were the lucky recipients of a visit from a Team Canada athlete mentor on Thursday (Oct. 29).

Classroom Champions and Whitecap Resources were able to bring 19-year-old Maya Yuen of Calgary to the school for the day to speak on her journey to becoming a part of the national junior luge team and the challenges she has faced and continues to face in the sport.

Yuen has been involved in the sport since she was just 10 years old. She says she was introduced to it through her Girl Guides group.

“One of our leaders, her husband, was actually an Olympic doubles athlete, and they wanted to get more exposure to young girls, and I started and immediately fell in love with it.”

She says her parents never held her back from the sport for being too dangerous, but instead her own mother tried it and loved it as well.

Yuen spoke to Alexander Forbes students, saying that winning is not the only way to feel successful, even if you do not make it to the podium.

She competed in the 2024 Gangwon Youth Olympics at the age of 16, where she placed 11 out of 31 competitors in women’s singles, and notes it was “a good trial run.”

“My expectations for myself were set a bit too high, I think. I was trying to make everything perfect, and as a luge athlete, I feel like that is embedded in everything we do, trying to be perfectionists. Every run we are talking about everything that went wrong and I feel like that’s something I’ve always been working on is trying to balance it out with positives.”

Yuen says her dream is to make it to the 2030 Olympics in France.

“Really the only thing you can see ahead is the Olympics. I think that’s always been what has fueled me, and being able to share that with my teammates too.”

She is currently competing on the Junior World Cup Circuit, with multiple races overseas in Europe, and particularly in Winterberg, Germany, where her favourite track is located.

“This is one of my last seasons as a junior athlete, so now it’s my chance to be proving to the senior coaches and everyone on the senior team that I’m ready and a very capable athlete.”

Yuen hopes her visit to Grande Prairie made an impact.

“I was definitely channelling what I would want to hear when I was that age. I really hope that inspired them, because that’s what would have inspired me.”

by Erika Rolling