Eyes on the prize

Julia Clukey is hoping that this time around things will go better.

The 24-year-old sounds relaxed as she talks after a recent summer workout in Lake Placid. She's about to head to Sweden for a weeklong vacation, but as the USA luge athlete describes her upcoming challenge of qualifying for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, she sounds like a person who is focused and ready.

Five years ago, that wasn't quite the case. When Clukey was 19, her father unexpectedly died of a heart attack. She tried to carry on and challenge for a spot on the 2006 Torino Olympic team, but when she didn't make the team trials in the fall of 2005 she decided to take a break from the sport. Not a simple decision for someone who had been competing in luge since.

"It took me a long time to just go through the grieving process,'' Clukey said. "That's not what set me back. It was just something I had to deal with. But at the time, luge became something that wasn't as important for me, and I think to compete at the top level in something like this your mind has to be there as well as your body, and I think my mind just was missing a little bit."

Not long afterward, Clukey left Lake Placid and headed home to Maine, where she lived at home and took classes at the University of Maine. She stayed there for about a half of a year before feeling ready to dedicate herself to the sport again.

"By not making the team I was able to step away from the team and deal with my personal life because it was really hard to deal with those at the same time," she said.

When she returned, however, she quickly achieved success.

Clukey made the U.S. World Cup team for the 2006-07 season and also qualified for the 2007 World Championships, where she finished eighth. She continued her ascension after that breakout season and finished fifth at the recent 2009 World Championships in Lake Placid and second in the 2009 Norton U.S. National Championships.

Not bad in a season when finances kept her away from about half of the World Cup events and one she describes as "all in preparation for this upcoming season."

So as she sits in Lake Placid in June, about six months before the three-person Team USA is decided, it's no surprise that Clukey is feeling pretty good.

"I think I just understand what to expect in the process," she said. "Going into (2006), I had only been on the World Cup for a year prior, so I understand how things work and just my mental strength and my confidence in myself is much higher than it was going into the (2006) Games.

"I'm totally confident in my training, and I'm not questioning anything I am doing right now. I just feel like I have a solid plan and things will come together."

The selection process for making Team USA for the 2010 Games is somewhat tricky, but if Clucky records a top-five finish in a World Cup event, she is pretty much assured of qualifying for the Games.

"My plan this summer is just to stay healthy," she said. "I've had some trouble with my back in the past so I've been working with the trainers here to keep my core strength up, and in addition to my weight room training, I'm just really focusing on the sliding aspect of my sport and being fluid in my muscles and training."

She's also making sure she is enjoying herself. Along with USA Luge teammates Brian Martin and Chris Mazdzer, Clukey left for Sweden this past week. In the second year of what she hopes will be an annual midsummer celebration, the group will meet with fellow teammates Bengt and Ashley Walden to celebrate the summer solstice. Bengt, who grew up and competed for Sweden before moving to Lake Placid and eventually joining Team USA, organized the details.

"It's on the longest day of the year, so in Sweden it's almost sunny the whole day," Clukey said. "So in their country, it basically shuts down and nobody works, so we do a big barbecue and play lawn games. It's kind of like a big barbecue, like Memorial Day here."

Luge has been Clukey's adopted life since she was 12, when she slid down the streets of Portland, Maine, on a 1997 stop by the USA Luge Slider Search program.

"After the first day I did it, I loved it," she said. "So when I was invited to Lake Placid, there was no question that I was going to convince my parents to let me go try it."

Her parents obliged. Clukey made her second home in Lake Placid, going through the junior ranks before graduating to the senior level. The Olympic Training Center has everything she needs, and Lake Placid offers her plenty to do, so Clukey has spent nine of the past 10 summers in the Adirondack town.

The luge lifestyle is one she loves, and she has no regrets about the sacrifices she has made throughout life to be where she is today.

"I love the competitive aspect of it and I love the inner challenge," she said. "Especially in doing an individual sport, you're really just racing against yourself, and there are always improvements to be made, so I love that."

Clukey has one year remaining on completing a college degree in civil engineering and plans to complete after the Olympics. But for now, in the summer of 2009, she is enjoying the present, knowing that nothing in the future is guaranteed.

"I am definitely really starting to grow in this sport and develop as one of the top sliders, but I have a long way to go in my sliding," she said. "But it's tough to make any real long term plans because it takes so much of your energy and commitment (to compete), and if one day you wake up and aren't fully into it, then there's really no sense to keep going."

Story courtesy Red Line Editorial, Inc. Chrös McDougall is a freelance contributor for teamusa.org. This story was not subject to the approval of the United States Olympic Committee or any National Governing Bodies.