Lake Placid, NY - September 9, 2016 - When members of the USA Luge national and junior national teams gather each September for the annual indoor start competition, it can only mean that a new racing season is fast approaching.
It’s also an indicator for the athletes as to how their conditioning and start training regimens have progressed during the off-season. The answers will come on Friday,
Sept. 16, at 7 PM, on the refrigerated ramps at USA Luge headquarters, 57 Church Street in Lake Placid.
The races will be streamed live at www.usaluge.org.
The event is open to the public free of charge, with rides down the ramps as a fundraiser to be offered after the competition. Donations to benefit the athletes and programs of USA Luge will be graciously accepted. USA Luge is a not-for-profit organization focused on recruiting, developing, training and supporting athletes to represent the United States in all international luge competitions, including the Olympic Games.
A group of recent Olympians will be in the competitive field; some will test themselves after shoulder surgeries; there will be a newcomer; injury will keep one stalwart out of action; while retirement ends the run of USA Luge’s most dominant starter.
Men
One of the top starters on the international scene is Tucker West of Ridgefield, Conn. The 2014 Olympian and Union College student seeks to acquire another start title to his resume. West has accumulated four already.
Another Sochi Olympian, Aidan Kelly of West Islip, N.Y., gets stronger each summer and could be ready to threaten West.
Taylor Morris of South Jordan, Utah, who contended for an Olympic berth prior to Sochi, has spent most of the off-season training in Lake Placid, and will be in the start championship lineup.
Rising junior national team member Jonny Gustafson of Massena, N.Y., will test himself against his older and more seasoned teammates. Gustafson was the fastest from the start handles in last year’s Junior World Cup.
Riley Stohr of Whitehall, Mich., will continue his return from shoulder surgery two seasons ago as he strives for as spot on the national team.
John Fennell (pronounced feh-NELL) came to the U.S. team via Canada after the 2015-2016 season. Fennell of Rouses Point, N.Y., has dual citizenship: he was born in Denver to Canadian parents. Fennell has been training with the national team in Lake Placid since the spring.
The team’s top men’s racer, Chris Mazdzer of Saranac Lake, N.Y., third in last year’s World Cup standings will not compete. Mazdzer is a member of the International Luge Federation (FIL) Executive Board and will be in meetings abroad at that time. The two-time Olympian has trained well over the summer after shoulder surgery last spring and is on schedule to hit the ice next month.
Women
The women’s field is headlined by 2014 Sochi Olympic bronze medalist and 2009 World Champion Erin Hamlin of Remsen, N.Y. Hamlin, a three-time Olympian, has worked each summer to shave fractions of seconds from her start times.
On the handles, the improving Summer Britcher, a 2014 Olympian from Glen Rock, Pa., is one to watch after her stellar 2015-2016 World Cup campaign that saw her finish fifth overall, just one spot behind Hamlin. Britcher led the tour standings nearly midway into the season.
Emily Sweeney of Suffield, Conn., was on the Lake Placid World Cup podium last December on the historic day that saw USA Luge sweep the medals (with Hamlin and Britcher) for the first time in singles annals. Sweeney’s silver medal is her personal best at the elite level, in addition to her 2013 Junior World Championship title.
However, fast forward to this summer, she suffered a training mishap that resulted in wrist surgery in late August. Sweeney, consistently quick from the start handles, will be out of action into the fall. U.S. coaches hope she’ll be ready for the start of the World Cup campaign in late November.
The lineup for shoulder repair also included Raychel Germaine of Roswell, Ga. Germaine had a break-out season last year. Fresh from the junior ranks, she recorded pressure-packed results in the fall to grab a team berth, and a seventh place World Cup finish in Lake Placid. She, too, had surgery in the spring.
Right behind this group of talented women lurk two more. Brittney Arndt of Park City, Utah, captured the Lake Placid spring seeding races and Norton Junior National Championship, while Grace Weinberg of Pittsfield, Vt., was right behind Arndt, taking silver medals in those events.
After winning this indoor championship a team-record eight times, and collecting a pair of World Cup silver medals, 2010 Olympian Julia Clukey of Augusta, Maine, retired earlier this summer.
Clukey, also a USA Luge board member, in recent years dealt with the symptoms associated with Arnold-Chiari Syndrome. The medical issues prevented her from training at the level required of world class luge racers. Clukey, her family and medical team made the decision jointly.
Doubles
The top doubles team of Matt Mortensen of Huntington Station, N.Y. and Jayson Terdiman of Berwick, Pa., fifth in the overall World Cup standings last season, have made start improvement a priority this off-season. They are beginning only their third year together, with these athletes teaming up after the Sochi Winter Games.
The doubles division will be watched closely as two USA Luge sleds are ready to start their second seasons together.
Those entries are Jake Hyrns of Muskegon, Mich., with Anthony Espinoza of Park City, Utah, and Justin Krewson of Eastport, N.Y., the front driver for Andrew Sherk of Fort Washington, Pa. Krewson and Sherk anchored a USA Luge World Cup gold medal in the Lake Placid team relay in December 2015.
An additional group of athletes from the up-and-coming USA Luge C Team have been invited.
The start race, on the team’s artificially iced ramps, will come approximately one month from the competitors return to the full length track at Mount Van Hoevenberg, outside Lake Placid.
The Norton National Championships and seeding races will be held in late October and early November in Lake Placid, Whistler, B.C. and Park City.
The World Cup luge tour opens for the 2016-2017 campaign on Nov. 26-27 in Winterberg, Germany prior to a run of three weeks in North America with races slated for Lake Placid (Dec. 2-3), Whistler (Dec. 9-10) and Park City (Dec. 16-17) prior to the Christmas break.
For more information on the Fastest Sport on Ice®, log on to www.usaluge.org