Luge athlete Emily Fischnaller, who grew up in Suffield but now lives in Italy, was nominated for her third Olympic team and her selection will be officially confirmed Friday.
Fischnaller, née Sweeney, is married to 2022 Olympic bronze medalist Dominik Fischnaller, who will also compete in the Milano Cortina Olympic Games, which begin Feb. 6 in Italy.
“Every Olympic year is its own arena, so you can’t group them all together,” Sweeney said Monday on a Zoom call with the other luge nominees. “Every quad has its own set of craziness.
“It doesn’t feel like it’s sunken in yet. We’re all here with the nomination; I think we need more official announcement to feel like, ‘OK, it’s really happening.’”
Fischnaller, 32, joins four-time Olympian Summer Britcher and two-time Olympian Ashley Farquharson as the U.S. women nominated for singles competition.
Tucker West, who grew up in Ridgefield, is a three-time Olympian, but he did not make the U.S. men’s team this year. West needed to finish in 16th place or better in the World Cup in Winterberg, Germany last weekend, or finish ahead of Matt Greiner of Utah. West ended up 20th and Greiner was 15th, so Greiner was nominated for the U.S. team for the first time.
Fischnaller was born in Maine but grew up in Suffield. She has been on a luge sled since she was 10 years old, following her older sister Megan’s lead. In 2009, she had to race Megan in Lillehammer, Norway for a spot on the team and Megan beat her by 2/10ths of a second.
She made her first Olympic team in February 2018 in South Korea, but during her last run on the Pyeongchang track, something went terribly wrong and Fischnaller crashed as her parents and sister watched in horror. She broke bones in her back and neck, sprained her ankle and had a concussion.
She was able to return to competition that December and won a bronze medal in her first World Cup in Whistler, British Columbia.
In 2022, she finished 26th at the Olympics in Beijing.
This World Cup season, Fischnaller has had mixed results. On her home track in Lake Placid in late December, she was first after the first run but dropped off the podium into fourth place after her second run. On Dec. 13, at the World Cup in Park City, Utah, Fischnaller was in second place after the first round but fell to 13th on her second run. In the first World Cup of the New Year in Latvia, Fischnaller was in fourth after the first run but came off her sled in the second run and didn’t finish. She finished 18th at the World Cup in Winterberg, Germany last weekend to clinch the nomination.