March 6, 2009

My name is Erin Hamlin. I am a member of the U.S. National Luge Team and 2006 Olympian. I recently became the first American woman to win World Championships in luge and the first non-German in 16 years.
 
I have competed at the senior level for four years and began sliding nine years ago. Luge is a sport that requires years of practice, and success inevitably comes from hours and hours of hard work, and years of experience. Saying that, I am very fortunate to have moved quickly to the highest level of competition, and at only 22 I am looking forward to an off-season of hard training in hopes of making my second Olympic team.

For a quick re-cap on the end of our international season and life since becoming a World Champion…

After World Championships in February, we went back on the road for two weeks of racing in Canada. With the last race of the year being a test event for the Olympics, it was a pretty important end to the season. Results in Calgary were solid, but there is still room for improvement.
 
Whistler has recently been crowned the fastest track in the world and nobody argued that fact in the least bit. Being able to hit 90mph without worrying about getting in trouble is not something everyone gets to experience! The race was impressively close, though, and coming out in fifth I am eager to go back, make fewer mistakes, and hopefully be faster a year from now!
 
After hanging out in Whistler to ski (had to take advantage of being up there and not have training for a week…), returning to New York brought me back to the chaos of the life of someone who unexpectedly won Worlds two weeks earlier. Things had, for the most part, gone back to normal while on the road, but as soon as I set foot in my house, my mom was rattling off people’s words of congratulations and requests to meet me, speak to me, interview me, etc. Talk about new territory…

I never fully imagined I would win, making the podium maybe, but making history at home in Lake Placid has been something I don’t think any race will ever top. I am honored to be the first U.S. woman to achieve the title and to stop the Germans before they got to 100!
 
Having so many people at home interested and supportive has been great?it just might take a little while to show my appreciation! A major reason is that the season is not yet over, and I am back in Lake Placid, back on the ice, and training for our National Championships taking place a week from now.
 
Along with getting back on the track for the first time in a few weeks (due to bobsled and skeleton worlds we had no track time until this past Thursday) I have started looking forward to the summer and off-season training. My initial plans of getting some tough, butt-kicking workouts to whip me back into full-time “working out” shape has begun, and walking is a newly difficult task. A common result of high repetition workouts…especially when lifting has not been my main priority for the past five months. Getting things started now will only provide better training this summer, and I look forward to putting in as much time as possible, not unlike other years.  So for now…back to training!