Emily SWEENEY

OLYMPIC CRASH
On the fourth run and sitting in 16th position at the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games, she control of her sled on the notoriously-tricky Curve 9. She careened through the next three sections of track before ricocheting feet-first off the top lip of the track and being thrown from her sled. She was able to walk off the track, telling reporters she was sore but fine, and initial X-rays and an MRI suggested she had no broken bones. But at the hospital, doctors found that, in addition to a concussion and sprained ankle, she had broken bones in her back, her neck, and her pinky finger.

She felt "lost" in the following months. Depressed and constantly uncomfortable - she could not sit up for more than 10 minutes and could only walk six-and-a-half minutes on a treadmill. “My world just stopped. I was frail and weak and I didn’t know if I could physically do [luge] again. And for the first time in my life, I didn’t have a dream.”

She returned to racing in December 2018 with a first-place finish in the Nations Cup and then a bronze medal at the World Cup in Whistler. “I don’t know how I did it, looking back on it now. It was insane that I did that, but I was just sliding so well. But still, after sliding, I had to lay down on the ground. I couldn’t move. It took everything I had.” (olympics.com, 21 Dec 2021; courant.com, 12 Dec 2021; yahoo.com, 2 Dec 2018;

VANCOUVER 2010 HEARTBREAK
In 2010, the final spot for Team USA came down to her and her sister Megan. In a one-race qualifier in Lillehammer, she lost to her sister by 0.2 seconds and ended up as an alternate, watching her sister compete from the stands. "Going to the Olympics and watching her was difficult. I'm glad I went, I'm glad I supported her. I wouldn't have changed that for the world. But it was tough standing on the other side of the track watching my dream happen." (army.mil, 6 Feb 2018)

BREAK FROM THE SPORT
After missing out on a place at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games, she took six months away from the sport and began working as a waitress and hostess at restaurants. She didn't even watch the Games in Sochi. In May 2014, she received Army orders to attend a Warrior Leader Course [WLC] at Fort Dix, New Jersey. "I went from being an Olympic hopeful, training at 100 percent, to just stopping everything. WLC kind of pulled me out. It gave me a schedule that I had to adhere to again. I kind of got back into the military mode and then after that, I got back into my training." (Info 2018; army.mil, 6 Feb 2018)

RELATIONSHIP
Is currently dating Italian slider Dominik Fischnaller. (Instagram)

© Data by Sports Data Warehouse

Made her Olympic Winter Games debut at PyeongChang 2018, which ended in a crash.

Six World Championships appearances (2013-21). In 2019, she became the second woman from the United States of America to medal in singles at the World Championships with her bronze (Erin Hamlin won silver in singles in 2017).

2013 World Junior champion in singles and bronze medallist in the relay (with Tucker West and Tyler Andersen/Anthony Espinoza).

Finished sixth in singles in the 2016/17 World Cup and fourth in sprint in 2019/20.