Jonny Gustafson of the United States was the first luger down the track at the Utah Olympic Park on Saturday for the men’s singles sprint World Cup event. He had a clean run through the numerous twists and turns of the track and crossed the finish line in 27.729 seconds.
Since Gustafson was the first to go, there was nothing else he could do but watch as 14 more sliders tried to beat his time.
One by one, they went down the track, but with the end of the field approaching, Gustafson was still at the top of the leaderboard. All that stood between him and his first podium finish on the World Cup circuit was three of the best sliders in the world. If one of them failed to beat his time, he would clinch at least a third-place finish.
David Gleirscher of Austria knocked Gustafson off the top spot by less than a tenth of a second, and Germany’s Felix Loch then edged past the American to slide into second. Dominik Fischnaller of Italy ended Gustafson’s podium dreams for good with the fastest time on the last run of the event, pushing Gustafson to fourth.
But Gustafson’s fourth-place finish is still the best result of his career on the World Cup circuit, and it came on home soil. The American is now in the top 10 of the overall World Cup standings heading into the 2023 portion of the schedule.
“It’s awesome, it means a lot,” Gustafson said. “I really hope we have more World Cups here in the upcoming seasons so we can get a best World Cup finish. Sprint World Cup is slightly different, but it still feels awesome. It feels good. I love Park City, I love racing here, I love sliding here and it’s just awesome.”
Gustafson’s weekend didn’t get off to the start he was hoping for during the men’s singles World Cup event Friday night. A couple of errors set him back on the first run, and his second one was even slower. He finished in 15th, barely making the cut for the sprint event the next day and setting him up to be the first slider down the track.
“Yesterday wasn’t what I wanted,” Gustafson said on Saturday. “Neither of my runs were clean, had problems in different parts of the track. I think I’m 15th with those not great runs. I was happy to make it into the sprint, but also very disappointed in my performance.”
Which is why redemption was so important for Gustafson in Saturday’s sprint race. He cleaned up his mistakes from Friday and completed a smooth, efficient run.
“It felt awesome,” Gustafson said. “Seeing everyone come down one after the other and just kept climbing a little bit more. I kind of knew after a couple runs I was going to be up there pretty far. Being that close to a medal, it would have been nice to get a little bit faster. But fourth is still my best result of my career, so I really can’t complain.”
Gustafson added that there were complicated emotions as he watched the rest of the field try to knock him off the top spot. Usually in luge, there are plenty of lead changes on the second and final run since the order runs from the slowest to the fastest luger. But since the sprint World Cup events only use one run, the first person to go still has a chance to win.
“It’s always a weird feeling because when you see someone make a mistake, you’re not cheering for it,” he said. “You want everyone, for the most part, to have a good run and your good run to beat their good run. You have that minor amount better than they did. I think I did that with a lot of sleds. Some sleds had some mistakes, and that’s the sport. Just climbing and climbing with each sled, I was just ecstatic.”
Gustafson is looking to carry his positive momentum into the rest of the season in 2023 following the holiday break. The World Cup’s next stop is in Sigulda, Latvia, in early January.
“It’s definitely good to have my best result here right before Christmas,” Gustafson said. “Now I have about 10 days before we start traveling again where I’m going to be on that high, and I think that’s going to carry me through Christmas and set me in a good mood for the second half of the season.”