What Keeps Veteran Luger Emily Fischnaller On Track?

When Emily Fischnaller (née Sweeney) first tried luge, some of her young teammates were not even born yet. But the 32-year-old is not ready to retire. Far from it. After winning USA Luge’s start championships in September, she is on her way to qualifying for her third U.S. Olympic team in 2026.

As Fischnaller embarks on her 17th season on the FIL World Cup tour, we asked what keeps her motivated?

The chance to continue learning in a sport that continually evolves, she says.

Fischnaller also has unfinished business in the Olympic realm. She is aiming for her third Olympic team — but it will be her fifth try.

“In this Olympic year, the thing that keeps me going is the opportunity for those medals,” she says. “I really believe in our team, and I’m excited to see what we can do.”

Even better, the Milano Cortina 2026 will be a home Olympic Games of sorts for Fischnaller. In May, she married Italian luger Dominik Fischnaller, a 2022 Olympic bronze medalist, and the pair now call Italy home.

“It’s the closest that I will have to a home Olympics because even if I do stay in luge [for a few more years], 2034 is too far away!” she says with her trademark bright smile, referring to the Olympic Winter Games Salt Lake City 2034, eight years from now.

Fischnaller’s journey in luge is inspirational, not for the medals she has won (and she has won many) but for her perseverance.

Inspired by older sister Megan, who was on USA Luge’s national team, Fischnaller first tried luge at a USA Luge Slider Search in 2003. Within a few years, she was competing in junior world cups and had a podium finish leading up to the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. The final spot on the 2010 U.S. Olympic team came down to a race-off — with sister Megan, who earned the spot.

Fischnaller was only 16 at the time and figured her time would come. Over the next few years, she won more junior world cup medals — and joined the U.S. Army, becoming part of the World Class Athlete Program. Then in 2013, at the age of 19, she became junior world champion.

But when the Olympic Winter Games Sochi 2014 arrived, Fischnaller again found herself on the sidelines. She had issues with her sled and was contending with minor injuries and missed qualifying for the Sochi Games. After that experience, Fischnaller took a step back.

“I was really at a point where I said, 'What's the point? What's the point of doing this if I'm not getting the results I'm wanting?'” she told the Army News Service.

In May 2014, she received orders to attend a month-long military leadership course. It “kicked me back into gear.” Over the next Olympic quad, she landed on the world cup podium more regularly and in 2018, was named to her first Olympic team.

But then in early January 2018, her grandfather passed away. A U.S. Navy veteran, he had inspired her to join the military after high school, and the two were very close. The Olympic Winter Games PyeonhChang 2018 were rapidly approaching, so she stayed (literally) on track. But her consistency fell off. In the final world cup before the Games, she was sitting fourth after the first run, but ended up 21st.

Then on the Olympic track in PyeongChang, Fischnaller went into her fourth and final run sitting in 16th place. Halfway down the track, in a tricky corner, she bounced against the wall, ricocheted to the other wall and turned sideways. Although she walked away from the crash, she had fractured her neck and spine.

Recovering that summer, Fischnaller felt frail and unmotivated. She would need to finish on the podium to maintain her team status in the coming season, but that felt like an unreachable goal. About six months after the accident, she went for a walk with one of her coaches. She asked if he thought she could do it. Yes, he replied, and she believed him. And that was enough. Fischnaller scored several top five world cup finishes that season, even as she continued to struggle with her neck and back.

Then at the 2019 world championships, she won a bronze medal.

She entered the 2022 Olympic year feeling good. But she struggled on the Beijing track and ended up 26th. The result did not derail her career though. In fact, the opposite. She was ready for another Olympic quad.

 In niche sports like luge that only make the mainstream news cycle during the Olympic Winter Games every four years, most athletes do not land big-name sponsors. To pursue their sports, they need financial support. Many hold down jobs around their training. But competing on the world stage, they often face athletes from other countries who are supported by their governments, their athletic careers considered ambassadorships.

Fischnaller recalls foreign coaches coming into the USA Luge program and trying to schedule workouts when many of the sliders had to work. The coaches would say, “What do you mean work? This is work!”

The U.S. lugers would reply, “We know it’s work, but we have bills to pay.”

To help even the financial playing field, the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Foundation (USOPF) assists athletes like Fischnaller, who has received direct athlete stipends from the foundation, as well as Operation Gold payments. Fischnaller calls the stipends “our bloodline,” while Op Gold, as the athletes call it, provides financial incentives for performance at the premier international event for their sport in a given year. In other words, a medal at world championships and/or the Olympic Games yields a much-needed bonus.

“Once you earn that funding, it allows you to train more and get to that next level,” says Fischnaller.

Other programs, like the Performance Innovation Fund, have allowed USA Luge to find faster steel runners for the team’s sleds, and also to work on the telemetry program, gathering data to improve sled performance — key areas that have allowed USA Luge to expand its capabilities around technology and data collection and analysis beyond what the program could do on its own.

"The Performance Innovation Fund provides support in key areas for USA Luge,” says USA Luge CEO Scott Riewald. “Collecting data is critical in a sport like luge with so many different elements, from G-forces, to vibrations, to aerodynamic friction and many more. Reducing the amount of friction on our team's runners is also an opportunity for us to gain an advantage, and the grant helps to support these efforts as well.

“The learnings, and advances that are coming from the initiatives supported by the Fund are game changing and will contribute to the athlete performances in Milano-Cortina and beyond."

Founded in 2013, the USOPF has since raised more than $575 million to help fuel athlete health, wellness, training, and post-sport opportunities. Over 2,300 athletes are currently competing with USOPF support.

“We don’t come into these sports to be rich,” says Fischnaller. “But I also think we shouldn’t come into these sports to be below the poverty line. These [funding] programs come together and help us earn a reasonable living while we’re working towards medals for Team USA.”

In her 17-year-long career at the senior level, Fischnaller has — so far — brought home 29 world cup and world championship medals. Of those medals, she has earned more than half in the past three years. She credits this success with: 1) having fun, and 2) an improved sled.

The first season after the Beijing Olympic Games was her first without military responsibilities. She had completed her commitment to the U.S. Army and decided to “have a year of fun because I’ve had so many challenging times.” She ended the 2022/2023 season with seven world cup medals.

The following season (2023/2024), she competed on a new sled that was more stable but she struggled to find speed. Results were hard to come by, but she “learned a lot through that process.”

“Early on in my career, I had a lot of speed but not a lot of control,” she explains. “Then [with the new sled] I had too much control and no speed. So now the pendulum has come to the middle.”

So far, 2025 has been a banner year for Fischnaller. In February, she won her second world championship medal in singles — another bronze. Then in May, she and Dominik Fischnaller walked down the aisle. Although they still own property in Lake Placid, New York, the pair will live in the South Tyrol region of Northern Italy where Dominik grew up.

At the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026, Fischnaller is excited about her own opportunities to win Olympic hardware. She is also excited to watch her husband compete while standing alongside his family — and her own.

“I’m excited about this Olympics in a way that I’ve never been,” she says. “We’ve been through a lot of challenging experiences, and now I feel so prepped that I just want to have the fun happen.”