Tucker West USA champion in luge start for the 10th time

Lake Placid (USA Luge/FIL) Three-time Olympian Tucker West increased his record of men's start titles to 10 with his victory at the Norton USA Start Championships on the ice start ramps in Lake Placid. That once again makes West the fastest starter for the 2022 national team in the single-seater.

Three-time Olympian Summer Britcher won the women's singles championship. The team of Zack DiGregorio and Sean Hollander won the men's doubles and Maya Chan and Reannyn Weiler were named winners of the women's doubles.

West, of Ridgefield, Connor, took a total of 6.61 seconds for his three runs, securing a new personal best by half a tenth of a second. In doing so, he beat Jonny Gustafson of Massena, N.Y., who finished 0.32 seconds behind West with a time of 6.93.

“It’s been a good summer and I stayed relatively injury free,” said West. “We’ve switched around our start training quite a bit and with our new start coach, Mandi Hillebrand, we are working on new techniques which I’ve taken quite well to, so we just need to see how this will transition to the ice for the season.”

Britcher, of Glen Rock, is the most decorated individual World Cup winner in U.S. luge history, edging Emily Sweeney by 0.11 seconds in the three starts. Sweeney is the 2019 World Cup bronze medalist and winner of the 2021 Start Championships. Britcher needed 7.18 seconds, while Sweeney finished with a time of 7.29.

“Today was great,” said Britcher. “I got a personal best start and since this is our first real start competition after Covid, it was great to have a crowd here to cheer us on and get us excited to race this season.”

The Norton Start competition annually kicks off the countdown to the team's return to luge on the ice. The team will return to luge on ice for the first time in early October in Lillehammer, Norway.

The annual national start competition in Lake Placid has been held for nearly 30 years and is used to evaluate athletes' progress in the important start technique.

To view video highlights of this event, visit https://youtu.be/mxyhlyZPZrw .