USA Luge’s Summer Britcher smiles after winning her second gold medal of the FIL Luge World Cup season in Sigulda, Latvia on Jan. 4. (Provided photo — FIL/Michael Kristen)

LAKE PLACID — USA Luge’s Summer Britcher has spent more than decade breaking women’s singles record deemed impossible by an American slider.

This season has been no different for the 31-year-old. She’s a serious medal contender for the upcoming Milano-Cortina Olympics, while returning to the Games for her fourth time.

But around this time four years ago, she was ready to give up the sport entirely.

Britcher had just finished her second run at the 2022 Olympics in 23rd — her worst finish ever at the Games — and as she got off her sled, she tried to smile … but it wasn’t a very happy one.

“It was just such a tough time competing in the sport then. I just wasn’t really happy,” Britcher said.

USA Luge’s Summer Britcher competes in the FIL Luge World Cup on Jan. 23. (Provided photo by FIL/Michael Kristen)

All season, she dealt with injuries, including broken fingers, while working through the mental gymnastics of the coronavirus pandemic. And for USA Luge’s all-time World Cup singles wins leader, the results just weren’t there. Britcher had just one finish in the top-10 finish during that season.

As she left the Olympics in Beijing, China, she was all but ready to call it quits. That was until a short break made her realize that she wasn’t really happy away from luge either.

“If I walked away four years ago, I would have been proud of my career, but I wanted to walk away proud and feeling really good about it,” Britcher said. “I just wasn’t done. I just had more to do.”

So far, it’s proven to be the right decision.

Along with her smile returning, the results are back too. Britcher has already won two World Cup women’s singles races this season, and three other top-10 finishes. She also ranks fifth in the overall World Cup women’s singles standings, despite missing the opening race.

Britcher is now set to lead the U.S. women’s singles sliders at the 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Milano-Cortina, Italy, with the hopes of winning her country’s first medal since 2018.

She’ll also become the third U.S. women’s singles slider ever to have competed at four Olympics — the other two were Cammy Myler and Erin Hamlin. It’s a short list that she didn’t know she was on.

“They’re both two people I really admire in this sport,” she said. “That’s a pretty cool club to be a part of.”

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A journey

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Britcher has been sliding for most of her life, but she’ll never forget when luge changed her life.

She attended a winter luge challenge at a ski mountain near her hometown of Glen Rock, Pennsylvania, when USA Luge’s Director of Marketing and Sponsorships, Gordy Sheer, suggested to her parents that Britcher should take part in a screening camp in Lake Placid in 2006.

Britcher said she was just excited then to get out of school for a week to take part in a sport. But when acutally went down the track, she immediately got hooked.

“I just needed to make the team so I could keep doing it and learning and going faster,” she said. “I was lucky enough to make the development team then and then just slowly worked my way up.”

By the time she was 14, she got invited to train with the junior national team, where she’d spend nearly the entire summer in Lake Placid training. She later attended the now-defunct National Sports Academy before finishing school in Pennsylvania.

After graduating from high school, she moved to Lake Placid full-time and now calls the village home. Britcher said she loves it here and the community.

“I love the fact that almost anytime I go anywhere, I’m gonna see someone I know,” she said. “I’m so, happy that I get to call Lake Placid home.

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A new mindset

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Britcher isn’t the same slider as she was a few years ago. She has a new yellow sled and a more positive approach to luge.

She also got an apartment in the area a few years ago and a cat. She later moved in with her boyfriend and got another cat. Mentally, she’s never been better, although she does miss her “little family” when she’s on the road.

But it’s been a work in progress.

Britcher has always had high expectations, and for the most part, she’s achieved them. But in 2022, when she was posting the results she aimed for, the pressure got to her. Somewhere along the way, she lost her love of competing. Her teammates began to notice, too.

“At some points, (they) were like, ‘Why are you here? You don’t really seem happy,'” Britcher recalled.

With the constant travel and effort required for luge, Britcher knew she had to change her mindset about the sport. She began working on becoming more passionate about it.

“I put into the forefront of my mind every training run and race run, that I’m really grateful for the opportunity, I love competing and it’s something that won’t last forever,” she said. “I put in a lot of work to change my mindset and kind of rewire those habits. I was kind of shocked by how well it actually worked.”

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A metallic dream

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With the Olympics upcoming, Britcher is just trying to focus on what she can control in Italy. But she admits winning a medal at the 2026 Milano-Cortina Olympics would be a dream come true.

“From the moment I took my first runs on the track in Lake Placid, that’s been in the back of my mind as something that’s possible one day,” she said.

But the truth is hasn’t happened very often for the U.S. luge team.

You can count on one hand how many American singles sliders have medaled at the Olympics, as it’s only been done twice. However, Britcher has been there for all of them — when Erin Hamlin won bronze in 2014, and when Chris Mazdzer won silver in 2018.

As the youngest woman on the U.S. Olympic Luge team in 2014, Britcher remembers watching Hamlin win that bronze medal. It morphed her perception of what the USA Luge team could achieve.

“It entirely changed my belief in our team and myself,” she said. “I carried it with me for the past 12 years or so.”

It’s not out of the question for the U.S. women to pull off another victory. In six World Cup events that USA Luge has competed in this season, the entire squad has won 10 medals. The U.S. women’s singles sleders, led by Britcher, have been a big reason for that success.

Britcher said loves being on a team with the other two women’s singles athletes — Emily Fischnaller and Ashley Farquharson. She added that they work well together with figure out the lines on the track, how they’re going to steer the different curves.

“The whole team’s awesome, but especially within our little mini team of women’s singles I feel really lucky to have those teammates,” Britcher said.

The Olympic Opening Ceremony in Milan, Italy, takes place Feb. 6. There is a six-hour forward time change from Milan to the U.S. Eastern.

Men’s singles will kick off on Feb. 7 and 8. Women’s singles is Feb. 9 and 10. Men’s and women’s doubles is Feb. 11 and the team relay is Feb. 12. To view the full Olympic schedule, visit tinyurl.com/2wppx4dm.