Summer Britcher: How a new Olympic challenge rejuvinated my career

The old adage that “Change is as good as a holiday” could not have been more true for Summer Britcher.

After a stellar 17-year career as an elite luge athlete that included World Cup wins, a world championship medal, and several Olympic appearances, the USA star lost her excitement for the sport.

She needed something to get her excited about sliding again.

In what seemed like fate, the IOC announced in the summer of 2022 that Olympic doubles luge will be divided into separate events for men and women at the Winter Olympics Milano-Cortina 2026 for the first time.

Previously, doubles were open to men and women, but no women ever competed at the Games.

Britcher jumped at the opportunity and started training in doubles with longtime Team USA teammate Emily Sweeney.

“The new challenge in itself was exciting to me,” Britcher, 29, told Olympics.com.

“I’ve been lucky enough to compete in three Olympics, and I had a bit of a disappointing experience at Beijing 2022 (due to injury).

“I was a little bit down, so to be part of this new challenge at such an early stage of this push for gender equality with my longtime teammate and friend, instead of competing against each other, was a really incredible experience.”

Britcher, who owns the U.S. luge record of five World Cup singles wins, is used to focussing on her own performance.

Despite this, she didn’t struggle to make the transition to doubles, and only saw benefits in competing in a team after so long.

“I really have missed team sports because I grew up competing in a lot of them,” the Winter Youth Olympic Games Innsbruck 2012 team relay gold medallist continued.

“In luge we have the team relay event and that’s always a favourite competition among the athletes because you're working together and cheering each other on.

“But having the actual teammate on the sled, having someone else that you're sharing success and your losses with, that you can learn from and bounce ideas off, it's something I've really missed.

How Summer Britcher overcame a mental hurdle

There was, however, a very steep learning curve to observe.

For starters, there was the technical skill needed to slide on top, or underneath another athlete while travelling at speeds of up to 90 mph (140 km/h).

Then there was an unforeseen mental barrier that Britcher had to overcome for the second time in her career.

“The only real struggle is worrying about someone else. If I'm making a mistake, I'm not just potentially hurting myself or ruining my own medal chances,” she admitted.

“That was a unique challenge that I struggled with, which I wasn't really expecting. I was scared, I was more scared of failing when I had someone else counting on me.

“I'm generally someone who's playing to win, but suddenly I was more worried about not messing up, which is something I overcame in my individual career a long time ago.

Both of the athletes have been maintaining their singles careers - albeit to a lesser extent than in previous years - in addition to the doubles in order to keep their options open come Games time.

But with Britcher needing to rediscover her confidence on the sled, they decided to take a brief break from doubles.

“We took a step away from doing doubles in the middle of the season to just focus on singles again in order to fix that.

Team chemistry and knowing when to 'Steer!'

Happily for the two most experienced female lugers in the United States history, team chemistry is no issue.

While some individual teammates in luge see each other as rivals, this duo have found a way over the past 15 years to remain friends and genuinely find happiness for each other's successes.

That, in turn, has made working together in the doubles sled all the more smooth.

“Emily and I have competed in two Olympics together against each other and we’ve been through it all together - tough times and good,” Britcher said.

“Something I think athletes don't talk about enough is how when you fail or mess up and you see a teammate doing really well, there's a lot of emotions that come with that.

“I've always been able to say I’m happy for her, but being teammates on the same sled has added a whole new layer when I see her do well in singles.

“Having that positive team culture only helps us in doubles. Things move very quickly and everything can change in a split second, so you don't have time to communicate.

“In our first training session I had made a mistake and we needed to steer corrected, and I think I yelled out loud, “Steer!” and she did. When we got to the finish I asked if she had heard me and she said, “No, I just knew it's what needed to be done”.”

Big decisions for Milano Cortina 2026

History beckons for the sport of luge at the Winter Olympic Games Milano-Cortina 2026, and Britcher and Sweeney have a big decision to make.

While luge doubles have been brought in to improve gender equality in the amount of luge disciplines and opportunities to win a medal, the number of quota spots per NOC has not increased.

Currently, both sliders are ranked in the top seven of the overall individual Luge World Cup rankings will have to decide to focus on either singles or doubles for the Olympics.

“Right now, Our goals are to explore our strengths in both categories. While I’d love to compete in both categories, right now we also have to help develop the younger athletes on our team so that if the path looks like Emily and I want to do doubles, we know we have a strong singles athlete who can really support us.

“The thought of possibly being part of the inaugural event is fantastic. It’s certainly a celebration that we now have women’s doubles.

“To be coming into this new role and to have a partner that I respect so much on the sled and that I can trust, it’s something really special to have the two of us here together.”