KOENIGSSEE, Germany –- Augusta’s Julia Clukey and the rest of the U.S. luge team return to World Cup tour action this weekend on a technically challenging Bavarian track.
The U.S. squad is coming off a productive December when it secured seven medals and had three lugers, Olympians Erin Hamlin, Chris Mazdzer and Tucker West, ranked among the top five performers in the World Cup standings.
Clukey, a 2010 U.S. Olympic team member, is still pursuing the form that led her to a World Cup silver medal and a Norton National Championship nearly two years ago.
Clukey was the highest-ranked American for the 2012-13 season but has struggled this winter with new equipment and consistency.
She ranked fourth among American women in the pre-Christmas World Cup luge stops behind Remsen, 2013 junior world champion Emily Sweeney of Suffield, Connecticut, and another 2014 Olympian, Summer Britcher of Glen Rock, Pennsylvania.
Women’s singles and doubles races at Koenigssee are set for 6 a.m. Saturday. Men’s singles featuring Mazdzer and West as well as the team relay are scheduled to start at 5:05 a.m. Sunday.
Wescott, Tuttle earn snowboardcross berths
Two-time Olympic gold medalist Seth Wescott of Carrabassett Valley was among the recent selections to U.S. Snowboarding’s 2015 national snowboardcross team.
Fellow Olympic medalists Alex Deibold and Lindsey Jacobellis along with eight-time X Games gold medalist Nate Holland headline the USA Team, while Alex Tuttle of Stratton and Carrabassett Valley Academy was selected to the national “B” Team.
The International Skiing Federation’s World Cup tour resumes in early March at Squaw Valley, California.
Murphy, Cota on US moguls teams
Troy Murphy of Bethel and Jeremy Cota of Carrabassett Valley have been named to the U.S. Freestyle Moguls Ski Team for the 2015 season.
Murphy, a 22-year-old Gould Academy product who competes for Planet Ski International, was named to the U.S. “B” Team. Cota, 26, who races for the Steamboat springs Winter Sports Club, returns to the U.S. “C” Team.
Both Murphy and Cota competed for berths at the Sochi Olympic Games last winter.
Murphy and Cota were among 20 athletes named to the U.S. Freestyle Moguls roster, a list headed by Olympic champion Hannah Kearney and Olympic veterans Patrick Deneen, Bryon Wilson and Heidi Kloser.
The U.S. Freestyle moguls team will start off the New Year in Calgary, Alberta, for the second World Cup of the season, then the tour comes to the United States Jan. 8-10 for the Visa Freestyle International at Utah’s Deer Valley Resort. A second U.S. stop is scheduled Jan. 29-31 for the Putnam Freestyle World Cup in Lake Placid, New York.
The U.S. team also will compete Jan. 14-25 at the 2015 FIS Freestyle Ski & Snowboard World Championships in Kreischberg, Austria, while Colorado’s Steamboat Ski Resort will host this year’s U.S. Championships, March 26-29.
Currier on IBU Cup roster
Russell Currier of Stockholm, the lone Mainer to compete at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, has been placed on the U.S. Biathlon team that will compete on the IBU Cups 4 and 5 in Europe this month.
Also named to the IBU Cup squad for those events was Clare Egan of Cape Elizabeth, a discretionary selection to the women’s squad after a third-place finish in the U.S. trials and a second-place performance in last fall’s rollerski trials.
The IBU Cup series resumes Jan. 9-11 at Duszniki Zdroj, Poland, and then Jan. 15-18 at Langdorf-Arbersee, Germany.
The IBU Cup is considered a notch below the top-tier World Cup competition, in which Currier competed earlier this winter and for much of last season while qualifying for the Olympic team.
