Under sunset clouds in the shape of a luge slider, Park City's Utah Olympic Park, the host of the 2022 FIL Luge Nations Cup and World Cup. Photo: Michele Roepke

PARK CITY, Utah — Three athletes who call Park City and Utah home on the USA Luge Team are Brittany Arndt, Chris Madzder, and Ashley Farquharson. The three athletes who slid onto 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place, respectively, at the Nations Cup in Park City on Thursday, up against ten other countries, were Arndt, Mazdzer, and Farquharson.

There’s something to be said about home track advantage at the Utah Olympic Park a day before the start of the Luge World Cup. The Nations Cup serves as a qualifier into the following days’ World Cup races.

The freezing temperatures barely snuck above single digits.

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Arndt came in first for the women’s singles racers over the Austrians, Italians, Latvians, Poles, Koreans, Canadians, and Romanians with a combined finish total time of 44.591.

Ashley Farquharson finished in 3rd with a time 0.160 behind the second-place Austrian athlete, Lisa Shulte.

Salt Lake City’s Chris Mazdzer, the first American singles man to win a silver at any Olympics in 2018 in PyeongChang, came in second in the Men’s Singles competition behind Germany’s Mathis Ertel by a margin of 0.030.

His field included the Austrians, the Italians, the Poles, and the Slovaks.

Mazdzer started his four-time Olympic sliding career in Lake Placid, New York, the only other location in the United States with a track. He told reporters in November that while he still enjoys many training aspects of the US Luge Headquarters in Lake Placid, he “loves living in Utah and raising his young family here.” He uses a nearby skating rink to practice his pull starts.

Emily Fisher is the Executive Director of the Youth Sports Alliance, of which the Wasatch Luge Club is a designated team. Thrilled for the hometown ladies’ results, she told TownLift, “Ashley Farquharson racing this week is a full circle moment on so many levels. Those in the community who have supported the Youth Sports Alliance over the years can see their efforts to make sport accessible to all children on the Wasatch Back realized. Ashley started in Get Out and Play. While training with the local Wasatch Luge Club, Ashley received need-based funding from YSA’s Stein Eriksen Endowment.”

Friday is the first day of Park City’s International Luge Federation (FIL) World Cup Races, with food trucks, beer gardens, axe throwing, hot chocolate, and a visit from the biggest luge fan of them all, Santa Claus.

Spectating the Luge World Cup is free.

Photos courtesy of FIL // Mareks Galinovskis/FotoMan.lv