USA Luge athlete Emily Sweeney navigates the Shady curve at Mount Van Hoevenberg in Lake Placid during the women’s singles event at a World Cup race in December 2018. (Enterprise photo — Lou Reuter)

Despite some strange setbacks — from a military impasse to a broken sled — Emily Sweeney of Lake Placid is in a stronger position to qualify for the 2022 Olympic Winter Games at Beijing, China, than any other member of the U.S. luge team.

Overcoming obstacles is nothing new for her. When she finally got to the Olympics on her third try, in 2018, she crashed horrifically and broke two bones in her back. Her parents, Larry and Sue Sweeney of Saranac Lake, say she perseveres by being stubborn and analytical.

“She’s very persistent, like her mom,” Larry said.

“She’s a thinker,” Sue said. When faced with a problem to solve, “Usually she would figure out a way that would be different than any of the rest of us would have figured.”

Right now it’s make-or-break time for the world’s fastest sledders, who are back in Europe after taking some time off for the holidays. Olympic qualifications hang on the World Cup races this weekend in Germany and next weekend in Latvia. The U.S. team plans to announce its Olympians on Jan. 10, including three women. That means one of the four women on the World Cup tour will miss the cut.

Sweeney, 28, is the only member of the U.S. luge team, man or woman, with an individual top-five finish this season and is therefore the only one to secure Tier A qualification, the highest in the three-level Olympic selection system. That doesn’t guarantee her a trip to Beijing, but it helps. Summer Britcher of Pennsylvania and Lake Placid and Ashley Farquharson of Park City, Utah, have secured Tier B, meaning they have had at least two finishes in the top 13. Brittney Arndt, also of Park City, has not yet reached a tier and therefore would have throw down some killer runs these next two weekends to make the Olympics.

Some not-so-wintery weather in Winterburg, Germany, might shake things up. It is predicted to be in the 40s and raining, and USA Luge spokesperson Sandy Caligiore said that tends to help underdogs because they go first in the start order, when the ice is harder and faster. By the time higher-ranked racers go, the ice is softer and slower — but some of that can be reversed in the second run, when the order is determined by who did best in the first heat.

Britcher is currently ranked ninth in the World Cup standings, Farquharson 12th, Sweeney 18th, and Arndt 25th. Sweeney would likely be ranked higher if military restrictions had not made her miss three of the seven races so far this season. She is a member of the New York National Guard and the U.S. Army’s World Class Athlete Program, and with tension high between the U.S. and Russia, the Army bans its personnel from going there. Therefore, she had to skip the World Cup tour’s two-week swing through Sochi. She rebounded with a fifth-place finish in Altenburg, Germany, the best for any U.S. luge racer this season.

The next weekend Sweeney broke her sled in a training run crash in Igls, Austria. She still placed sixth, on a sled cobbled together by men’s doubles racer Jayson Terdiman and coach Lubo Mick.

This year’s obstacles are minor compared to those Sweeney has overcome in the past. In 2010, her older sister Megan edged her out for the Olympic nod. In 2014, she missed the cut again. She took a break from the sport for a while but came roaring back. The 2018 Olympic crash slowed her down for a while, but she rebounded from that as well.

“Every four years she’s had something strange to deal with,” her mother said.

USA Luge is based in Lake Placid and all its athletes live there to train, but Sweeney has more local ties than most. Her father Larry grew up in Saranac Lake, and many relatives live there, including his father Jack Sweeney, who was quite close to Emily until he died four years ago at age 88. Emily and Megan were born in their mother’s native state of Maine and grew up in Connecticut. Emily bought a house in Lake Placid in 2018, and her parents moved to Saranac Lake shortly afterward.

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Women’s doubles

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Women’s doubles luge made its World Cup debut in early December, and Sophie Kirkby of Ray Brook and Chevonne Forgan of Massachusetts took silver — but they won’t go to the Olympics. Women’s doubles luge is not expected to join the Olympics, at the earliest, until 2026 at Milano Cortina, Italy.