LAKE PLACID, N.Y. – The ice has been off the Olympic Sports Complex luge track in Lake Placid for almost a month, but it’s already time to focus on next season. Heading up the Fall 2013 National Team will be World Cup silver medalist Julia Clukey, 2009 World Champion Erin Hamlin and 2010 Olympian Chris Mazdzer.

Above: Julia Clukey

The 2012-13 luge season marked a turning point for Clukey, of Augusta, Maine. The 2010 Olympian ranked sixth in the overall World Cup standings and reached the podium for the first time in her career during the Lake Placid event held in February. Clukey consistently posted top start times all season long, marking a full recovery from a surgical procedure conducted in March of 2011, which involved shaving eight millimeters off the base of her skull to help her relieve headaches, pain and fatigue caused by Arnold Chiari Syndrome.

Above: Erin Hamlin

Erin Hamlin, a two-time Olympian from Remsen, N.Y., finished just behind Clukey in the season-long rankings in seventh place. Her top finish of the year was also the Lake Placid event, where she finished fifth.

Chris Mazdzer, of Saranac Lake, N.Y., leads the charge for the men’s singles team after a string of personal best results late in the season. At the 2013 World Championships in Whistler, Canada, he finished sixth, only to move up a spot to fifth the following weekend in Lake Placid. Mazdzer shared the Norton National Championship this season with Tucker West of Ridgefield, Conn. following a tie to the 1/1000th of a second after four heats and four miles of racing. 

Clukey, Hamlin and Mazdzer are automatically qualified for the Fall 2013 National Team. The first five World Cups will be used to determine the make-up of the 2014 Olympic squad.

A group of athletes, also named to the National Team and described below, will need to qualify to compete in the fall 2013 World Cup races through a series of competitions held in advance of the World Cup kick off, tentatively scheduled for November 16-17 in Lillehammer, Norway.

A pair of Junior World Champions, Emily Sweeney of Suffield, Conn. and Kate Hansen of La Canada, Calif., along with 2012 Glen Rock Pa. native Summer Britcher were named to the women’s team. Sweeney, the reigning Junior World Champion, hopes to qualify for the 2014 Olympic squad after losing a race-off to her sister Megan for a spot on the 2010 team. Sweeney is also a member of the Army World Class Athlete Program (WCAP), which allows her to train and serve her country. Hansen, who also took part in the 2010 race-off, won her Junior World Championship title in 2008 at age 15. Britcher, a member of the Junior National Team, was the bronze medalist at the Norton National Championships held in October of last year. She was a part of USA Luge’s gold medal effort in the team relay at the 2012 Youth Olympic Games. Taylor Morris, of South Jordan, Utah, showed considerable speed and improvement during the 2012-13 luge season, including a personal best seventh place finish at the Lake Placid World Cup. Morris is joined by fellow men’s singles sliders Joe Mortensen, who also posted a career-best 11th place result in the Lake Placid World Cup, was named to the team, along with Isaac Underwood of Skandia, Mich. All three athletes are members of WCAP.

In the doubles division, Matt Mortensen of Huntington Station, N.Y. and Preston Griffall of Salt Lake City, Utah, ranked 10th in the 2012-13 overall World Cup standings and WCAP members, were named to the team. Jake Hyrns of Muskegon, Mich. and Andrew Sherk of Fort Washington, Pa., who placed 13th in last season’s standings in their rookie World Cup season, will join Mortensen and Griffall. Two-time Olympian Christian Niccum of Woodinville, Wash. will be hoping to return to World Cup action after surgery on his back and Achilles’ heel kept him and teammate Jason Terdiman, of Berwick, Pa., off the ice last season. The 2012-13 overall Junior World Cup bronze medalists, Ty Andersen of Alpine, Utah and Anthony Espinoza of Park City, Utah were also named to the team. All four teams will race to qualify for the fall team.

Only two doubles sleds will advance to Sochi for the Olympics, along with three men and three women.

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. – A group of accomplished, medal winning young athletes will headline the fall 2013 Junior National Team, including two Youth Olympic Games gold medalists and four overall Youth World Cup medalists.

Summer Britcher of Glen Rock, Pa. and Tucker West, of Ridgefield, Conn., 2012 Youth Olympic Games team relay gold medalists, return to the team in the junior age bracket, for those born in 1994 and 1995. Britcher ranked sixth in last year’s overall Junior World Cup, while West placed 18th.

Both are no strangers to racing against older and more experienced competitors. At this season’s Norton National Championships, West tied for the gold medal with 2010 Olympian Chris Mazdzer of Saranac Lake, N.Y., while Britcher took third.

Riley Stohr, a native of Ludington, Mich. who resides in Whitehall, Mich. and the doubles team of Justin Krewson of Eastport, N.Y. and Tristan Jeskanen of Peru, N.Y. were also named to the team. Stohr won the overall Youth A World Cup silver medal and the Krewson/Jeskanen sled was third in the Youth A doubles World Cup.

Theresa Buckley of Allentown, Pa., winner of the 2011-12 overall Youth A World Cup silver medal, earned a spot on the women’s team, along with Britcher. For the 2013-14 luge season, athletes born in 1996-99, including Stohr, Krewson, Jeskanen and Buckley, will be eligible for Youth A competition.

Aidan Kelly of West Islip, N.Y. will be joining West in the fall as a member of the men’s team.  Kelly ranked 13th in the 2012-13 Junior World Cup.

An additional 42 athletes were named to the Junior National C and D teams, providing a healthy crop of future stars for USA Luge. More racers from the western states will be added to the roster in the fall.

Junior National C Team

Women
Sidney Axton (Port Byron, N.Y.)
Samantha Carone (Park City, Utah)
Raychel Germaine (Roswell, Ga.)
Sophie Kirkby (Ray Brook, N.Y.)
Shannon Knapp (Marcy, N.Y.)
Hannah Miller (Rome, N.Y.)  
Kaitlin Simi (Park City, Utah)
Gracie Weinberg (Middlebury, Vt.)    
Courtney Yando (Brainardsville, N.Y.)  
Nikol Yonemura (Salt Lake City, Utah)

Men
Liam Chaskey (Plattsburgh, N.Y.)
Jonny Gustafson (Massena, N.Y.)
Blake Hagberg (Utica, N.Y.)
Sean Hollander  (Lake Placid, N.Y.)
Elijah Pedriani  (New Haven, Vt.)
Charles Poarch (Sandy Hook, Conn.)
Duncan Segger (Lake Placid, N.Y.)    
Nikolaus Steg (Saratoga Springs, N.Y)
Justin Taylor  (Newark, Del.)
Levi Underwood  (Skandia, Mich.)                  

Junior National D Team

Women
Anna Basaj (Whitehall, Mich.)
Katherine Bishop (Carlisle, Mass.)
Emma Bowling (Indianapolis, Ind.)
Rachel Bowling (Indianapolis, Ind.)
Emeline Cave (Philpot, Ky.)
Sydney Cripps (Indianapolis, Ind.)
Ashley Farquharson  (Park City, Utah)
Chevonne Forgan (Chelmsford, Mass.) 
Courtney Sepucha (Concord, Mass.)
Kaylee Thomas (Chelmsford, Mass


Men
Duncan Biles (Herriman, Utah)
Justin Bistrovich (Syracuse, N.Y.)
Zach DiGregorio (Medway, Mass.)
Peter Hart (Carlisle, Mass.)
Ryan Lubetski (Sweet Valley, Pa.)
David Osborne (Wellesley, Mass.)
Evan Scheifelbein (Indianapolis, Ind.)
Ian Smith (Carlisle, Mass.)
Jayanth Tatikonda (Indianapolis, Ind.)
Aidan Trimble (Sharon, Vt.)
Parker Vance (Orangeville, Pa.)

Members of the Junior National Team will hit the ice in early October when the National Team begins its season in Lake Placid, N.Y., with camps scheduled for C and D team athletes throughout the fall and winter.

Several members of the Junior National Team will be in summer residence at the Olympic Training Center, as they could be in the mix for Olympic Team berths. Summer camps for C and D team members will also be held in Lake Placid and Park City, Utah.

The first Junior World Cup event will take place in Altenberg, Germany on November 29-30.

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. - On May 8, USA Luge announced that Claire DelNegro, a veteran in the field of sports management at the Olympic level, has been named as Interim CEO of the organization, effective immediately.

DelNegro, of Lynnfield, Mass., has held a number of prominent positions since she first became involved with the world of Winter Olympic sports nearly 35 years ago. She is a 1984 Olympian in luge, competing for Great Britain under her maiden name, Sherred.

Her involvement at the organizational level began in 1978, when she served as the Assistant Director of Housing for the Lake Placid Olympic Organizing Committee. She also served as a member of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee in the Press Services division.

DelNegro’s sliding sports management experience runs very deep. She worked for USA Luge for 11 years, serving as International Sports Program Director and Team Manager and serving as Team Leader for the ’92 and ’94 Olympic Games.  She then moved on to become the Director of Sliding Sports for the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City, followed by a two-year tenure as the CEO of the U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton Federation. She has served as an FIL/IOC Technical Delegate for every Olympic Games since 2002 and will do the same in Sochi next winter.

Thanks to her position with the FIL as Vice President of Sport for the last 15 years, Claire brings immediate credibility from a global standpoint. She is an FIL Silver Medal of Honor and IOC Diploma of Recognition recipient.

DelNegro, her husband Don, head trainer for the Boston Bruins, and their daughter Renee split their time between Lynnfield and Lake Placid, N.Y. where USA Luge is based.

In the meantime, USA Luge will continue their search for a full-time CEO. 

Above: Junior slider Duncan Biles takes care of his need for speed in the off season racing his kart, complete with USA Luge-inspired design.

• Julia Clukey will once again be running her Camp for Girls. Learn more at Julia’s website
• TeamUSA.org reports on Erin Hamlin’s love of baking and features her message to her mom on Mother’s Day
• Congratulations to 2002 Olympian Ashley Walden and her husband Bengt Walden , a four-time Olympian, on the April 4 birth of their daughter Estelle

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