Three-time Olympic luger Emily Fischnaller, who grew up in Suffield, finished her first two runs of the Olympic Games Monday morning in eighth place overall at the Cortina Sliding Center.
Fischnaller, 32, had a first run time of 52.892 seconds, good for seventh place. Her second run time was 52.980 and her combined time for two runs of 1:45.872 to drop her one spot in the standings.
Julia Taubitz, the 2022 Olympic gold medalist from Germany, leads the way with a combined time of 1:45.188 after two runs. She set a track record of 52.550 on her second run.
Fischnaller’s USA teammates Ashley Farquharson and Summer Bircher are currently in fifth and 12th place, respectively.
“Clearly, I haven’t quite figured out the first two curves yet,” Fischnaller told USA Luge Monday. “It’s good to have a little tricky section in there, but as soon as I get into curve six, I just fully enjoy sliding here. It’s such a fun track to slide on.”
The third run of the competition will take place Tuesday at 11 a.m. EST and the medal final run will be at 12:34 p.m.
Fischnaller’s husband, Dominik, won his second bronze medal Sunday in luge.
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 Olympic team and Megan beat her by 2/10ths of a second.
She made her first Olympic team in 2018 in South Korea, but in her last run on the PyeongChang luge track that February, Fischnaller crashed and broke bones in her back and neck, sprained her ankle and had a concussion.
In 2022, she finished 26th at the Beijing Olympics in Beijing.
Up next on Tuesday:
Kristen Santos-Griswold, who grew up in Fairfield, will start her quest for a medal in short track speed skating Tuesday, with heats of the 500 meters. … Mac Forehand, who also grew up in Fairfield, will compete in the slopestyle final. … Maxim Naumov, who grew up in Simsbury, will compete in the short program in figure skating after watching his Team USA teammates win a team gold medal over the weekend and Olivia Giaccio, a former Redding resident, will compete in the qualifying rounds of moguls.