The Milano Cortina Winter Olympics are set to be a venue for many rookies who will taste Olympic glory for the first time. However, there are veterans too, like luger Emily Fischnaller, who is locked in for her third Olympic Games at the age of 32. Well, her journey apparently will be aided by an unlikely ally: NASCAR.

With a few days remaining until the opening ceremony, NASCAR and USA Luge announced a landmark technical and marketing partnership aimed at driving competitive excellence. As reported by USA Today, NASCAR’s vice president of vehicle performance, Dr. Eric Jacuzzi, mentioned it as “bringing two U.S. sports together to push boundaries and help drive competitive excellence.”

So, NASCAR’s engineers will be lending their formidable expertise in aerodynamics directly to the USA Luge team. The assistance provided will completely focus on sleds’ aerodynamic optimization, along with other equipment. It will also include advanced virtual optimization using computational fluid dynamics and crucial wind tunnel testing.

Talking about the partnership, Jacuzzi added, “At NASCAR, innovation and performance are part of our DNA, and this partnership with USA Luge is a powerful example of how that expertise can extend beyond the racetrack. From aerodynamics and engineering to fan engagement and athlete support, we’re proud to collaborate with an organization that shares our passion for speed, precision, and representing the USA on the world stage.” 

With that, the collaboration is already underway.

During the Park City World Cup last December, many NASCAR team members scanned numerous USA Luge athletes as the initial point in the program. And if anything, this partnership can’t come at a better time for Fischnaller and other USA Luge athletes.

The 32-year-old’s career hasn’t always been a smooth one. At PyeongChang 2018, she fractured her neck and back, and in 2022, Beijing didn’t go her way, as she finished 26th.

“I’m not just here to be here. I chose to be here because I want to get better,” she said back then.

In 2025, she fought her way back to form, securing a World Championship bronze medal and a silver medal in Whistler. Now, heading to the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, the USA Luge athlete will keep her goals clear. And in this sport, Team USA has been successful before.

Emily Fischnaller and others are part of a historic team

Athletes like Emily Fischnaller are part of a team that has been known on the Olympic circuit. USA Luge’s journey began at the Innsbruck Games in 1964, and it featured soldiers stationed in Europe due to a lack of a domestic program at the time, which could produce the athletes required for the sport.

Following decades of development, at the 1998 Nagano Games, the doubles team of Chris Thorpe and Gordy Sheer secured a silver medal, and Mark Grimmette and Brian Martin claimed bronze. Their victory was a huge breakthrough for not only the US but the entire continent of North America, as this was their first Olympic medal in the sport.

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The momentum carried to the 2002 Salt Lake City Games, where Grimmette and Martin upgraded to silver, and Thorpe paired with Clay Ives for another bronze. But at the 2014 Sochi Games, Erin Hamlin won a bronze medal, becoming the first American to ever win an Olympic singles medal in the sport.

Then at the 2018 PyeongChang Games, Chris Mazdzer won a silver medal and became the first American man to make the singles podium. So, with the anticipation building up for the Milano Cortina Games, only time will tell what USA Luge can achieve this time around.