USA Luge announces national team: Eight Olympians and two juniors in the team

Lake Placid (FIL/04 May 2023) The USA Luge National Team for the 2023/2024 season has been nominated. The U.S. team consists of eight Olympians and two juniors. USA Luge hopes to build on last season's success. Nine medals and 58 top-ten finishes were achieved in the EBERSPÄCHER World Cup and World Championships, including 11 top-ten finishes at the World Championships.

On the women's side, Suffield's Emily Sweeney is entering her twelfth international luge season. The third-place finisher in last season's sprint World Cup leads the U.S. team. Three-time Olympian Summer Britcher (Glen Rock, Pa.) had seven top-ten finishes last season and raced on the team relay with teammates Tucker West and the duo of Zack DiGregorio/Sean Hollander to a top-five finish at the 2023 World Championships.

Britcher is the most successful individual U.S. athlete in history with five World Cup victories. Brittany Arndt (Park City, Utah) enters the 2023 season coming off her most successful season to date, winning a bronze medal in the women's sprint on her home track in Park City, Utah, her first World Cup podium finish. She also set a personal best with an eighth-place finish at the 2023 World Championships. Also named to the team was 2022 Olympian Ashley Farquharson (Park City, Utah), who also had a career-best fourth-place finish in the sprint at Park City. Norton Junior National Championship 2023 silver medalist Elana Morrison (Twin Lake, Michigan) qualified as an up-and-comer from the junior ranks.

On the men's side, three-time Olympian Tucker West (Ridgefield, Conn.) enters his 10th World Cup season after a consistent season in which he finished 10th overall in the EBERSPÄCHER World Cup. West helped lead Team USA to three team relay medals last season. 2022 Olympian Jonny Gustafson (Massena, N.Y.) looks to continue his podium run after finishing fourth in the men's sprint in Park City last year. Gustafson finished sixth at the World Cup in Igls, Austria. 2018 Olympic silver medalist Chris Mazdzer also qualified for the team after a reduced program in the fall of 2022. Hunter Harris (East Fairfield, Vt.), who moves up from junior, will round out the team. Harris' best performance last season was a sixth-place finish at the 2023 Junior World Cup in Altenberg, Germany.

After a season of significant improvement, DiGregorio and Hollander will join the duo of Dana Kellogg and Frank Ike to represent Team USA in men's doubles.

In 2022, DiGregorio (Medway, Mass.) and Hollander (Lake Placid) won gold at the U23 World Championships and made their first appearance at the Beijing Olympics, where they finished 11th in doubles and seventh in the team relay. In Park City, the team posted a career-best fourth-place finish in the World Cup and was part of all three relay team medal victories. Dana Kellogg (Chesterfield, Mass.) has been competing with Duncan Segger (Lake Placid) since the 2016-17 season. However, Kellogg will be joined next season by junior Frank Ike (Lititz, Pa.), who competed in the Junior World Cup with Aidan Mueller (West Islip, N.Y.) last season. Mueller will continue his career in men's singles, while Ike will join Kellogg on the national team.

In women's doubles, the duos of Chevonne Forgan and Sophia Kirkby and Maya Chan and Reannyn Weiler, as well as the Britcher/Sweeney doubles team, will be returning to the national team after their debut seasons. 

The 2022 World Cup bronze medalists, Forgan (Chelmsford, Mass.) and Kirkby (Ray Brook, N.Y.), hope to build on their success after winning silver at last season's World Cup in Sigulda, Latvia. Chan (Chicago, Ill.) and Weiler (Whitesboro, N.Y.) are coming off a seventh-place finish in the overall World Cup standings. Britcher and Sweeney were also named to the team after their first year as a doubles team. The duo finished ninth overall in their first season as doubles despite only competing in the first three events of the season.

The nine-race World Cup season begins in North America on December 8-10, 2023, in Lake Placid, with the World Championships taking place on January 27-28, 2024, in Altenberg, Germany.

For more information on Team USA Luge, please visit www.usaluge.org .