Name Tucker West Parents Brett West Weight 82 kg | Height 1.85 m Role Olympic athlete | |
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Backyard Olympian - Tucker West
Tucker West (born June 15, 1995) is an American slider, who, at the age of 18, was the youngest male ever to qualify to represent the United States in the men's luge at the Olympics. West placed 22nd in the men's single competition at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
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West attended National Sports Academy High in Lake Placid, New York. before going away to school he was a resident of Ridgefield, Connecticut. When West was a boy, his father designed and built a wood luge track in the backyard of their Ridgefield home. West currently attends Union College in Schenectady, New York.
Prior to making the ten-member Sochi squad, West was the co-champion of the 2012 U.S luge singles title with Chris Mazdzer, a U.S junior silver medalist, and a silver medalist at the 2011 world cup in Austria.
On 5 December 2014, West won the 2014–15 Luge World Cup men's singles race in Lake Placid. This win made him the first American to be victorious in a men's singles world cup event since Wendel Suckow on 15 February 1997.
On December 4 of the following year of 2015, West finished second in the same men's singles Luge World Cup event to his teammate Chris Mazdzer in the first one two finish ever for the United States in a men's singles Luge World Cup event.
On December 2 of 2016 West was triumphant for a second time again winning the 2016-17 Luge World Cup men's singles race in Lake Placid, this time besting the second place slider, Semen Pavlichenko of Russia by only 0.006 seconds for a time of 1:43.088. Then the following week at the next stop on the tour in Whistler, British Columbia he won the men's singles event again for back to back victories on the circuit.