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Framingham, MA
Ansel Haugsjaa's journey in luge began in the youth ranks where he quickly established himself as a steady performer with consistent results. At the 2022 USA Luge Youth National Championships in Park City, Utah, he placed third in the singles competition behind Marcus Mueller and Aidan Mueller.
The partnership between Haugsjaa and Marcus Mueller proved to be a turning point in both athletes' careers. The duo from Framingham, Massachusetts, and Brookfield, Wisconsin, teamed up for doubles competition and immediately found success. In the 2021-22 season, they won the FIL Youth A World Cup doubles championship, marking them as rising stars in American luge.
In 2024, they captured gold at the junior world championships in Lillehammer, Norway, becoming the first U.S. luge sled to win a junior world championship since Emily Sweeney's victory in 2013.
Haugsjaa and Mueller graduated to the U.S. luge national team for the 2024-25 season, joining the senior world cup circuit. Despite missing several events to maximize their training runs on critical European tracks, they finished seventh in the overall World Cup rankings in their debut season and placed seventh at the 2025 FIL World Championships in Whistler, Canada. The strategic decision by the USA Luge Junior National Team coaching staff to focus on accumulating experience through additional runs rather than attending every competition proved beneficial to their long-term development.
In the 2024-25 season's final stretch, Haugsjaa and Mueller returned to the FIL Junior World Cup circuit for three races, winning all three events in Sigulda, Latvia. Rather than defending their 2024 FIL Junior World Championship title, they chose to focus on gaining senior-level experience at the world championships—a decision that reflected their maturity and commitment to Olympic preparation.
In November 2025, they earned silver at the Cortina Olympic test event. One month later, they claimed their first FIL World Cup gold medal at Lake Placid in December 2025.
At the Olympic Winter Games Milan Cortina 2026, the sliding sports — bobsled, skeleton, and luge — will be held at the new Cortina Sliding Centre in Cortina d’Ampezzo. The facility opened to sliding this fall. It’s located in Cortina d’Ampezzo, 257 mil...
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 qualifyi...
In 2022, at the first world championship for women’s doubles luge, Team USA’s Chevonne Forgan and Sophia Kirkby won a bronze medal. They had been sliding together for less than two years.They won another bronze medal at the 2024 FIL World Championships...
USA Luge's Emily Sweeney could call multiple states in the Northeast her home. While she spent significant time in Maine and Connecticut, she often attributes her hometown to Lake Placid, New York. It is a small mountain town known primarily for two th...
The four-time Olympian announced his retirement ahead of this weekend’s world cup in Lake Placid, New York.
