John Fennell didn’t crack under pressure. His sled did.
Fennell’s quest to compete in a second Olympics for a second country came to a sudden end Thursday night at Mount Van Hoevenberg, when part of his sled broke during his run in the Nations Cup race.
Fennell, who was flying down the track before the part known as a kufen somehow came off, placed 21st in a race where a top-15 finish was needed to qualify for Friday’s World Cup competition.
That means Fennell no longer has a path toward getting one of the three men’s spots on the U.S. Olympic team.
‘Heartbroken,’ Fennell said.
Canadian luger John Fennell, who has dual citizenship in America, tried out for the USA team Pyeongchang Games and his sled broke (photo from Thursday at Mount Van Hoevenberg)
Fennell said he was absolutely ‘heartbroken’ after the fail, as his Olympic hopes were gone in an instant
The U.S. men’s team for the Pyeongchang Games will be decided Friday, with Tucker West, Chris Mazdzer, Taylor Morris and Jonny Gustafson still in the mix.
Fennell seemed like a lock to join them, until the kufen – one of the runners on his sled – gave way. When Fennell realized what happened, he knew his Olympic hopes were gone in an instant.
‘I hit a wall early in the track and I think it could have fractured it, and eventually it just succumbed to the bumps and the vibrations and broke,’ Fennell said.
The women’s World Cup race in Lake Placid will be on Saturday, and it now will be drama-free for two Americans.
‘I hit a wall early in the track and I think it could have fractured it, and eventually it just succumbed to the bumps and the vibrations and broke,’ Fennell said of the sled break
Summer Britcher and Emily Sweeney officially saw their spots on the Olympic team clinched Thursday night, when Raychel Germaine failed to qualify out of the Nations Cup race.
Britcher is going to the Olympics for the second time, and Sweeney – who narrowly missed a spot on the Olympic teams in 2010 and 2014 – is going for the first time. Erin Hamlin’s fourth Olympic trip was clinched earlier this season.
Germaine was the only other U.S. woman who entered this week with a mathematical chance at an Olympic spot, but she needed a superb World Cup finish on Saturday to make it happen.
Fennell competed in the 2014 Sochi Games for Canada before transitioning to membership with USA Luge.
The Canadian luger is pictured competing at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics at Sliding Center Sanki in Sochi, Russia
In 2014, Fennell remained hidden in the metaphorical closet when he competed in the luge for Team Canada in the Winter Olympics in Sochi
He was cut from the Canadian national team a year later, decided to take advantage of his dual citizenship and compete for the U.S., and became a serious contender for an Olympic spot.
He came out as gay not long after Sochi, and has spoken about how much it would have meant to compete in Pyeongchang as an openly gay athlete.
He came absurdly close to making it happen, before nothing more than bad luck doomed his chance.
‘I don’t have words for it,’ Fennell said. ‘I can’t really process this at the moment. I’m just at a loss.
‘I can’t really describe it. It’s just unbelievable, that this is how my chance to go the Olympics ends.’
Fennell no longer has a path toward getting one of the three men’s spots on the U.S. Olympic team