Greater Danbury’s Tucker West Stays Confident After Rough Run at Olympics
Tucker West from Ridgefield is part of the Men's Luge team at the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang. He didn't have a strong finish this year, and will not be getting any medals, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t set any records.
The 22-year-old from Ridgefield is competing in only his second Olympics, but had high hopes going into the games. During his first Olympic appearance in 2014 in Sochi, Russia, he finished in 22nd, so Tucker was hoping to best that and finish a little higher this year.
Unfortunately, that didn't happen, and Tucker wound up in 26th place when all was said and done, but he did set an Olympic record. He set a start record for Men’s Singles, which he made in his first run at 2.545, but his fast start didn't translate into a fast finish and he wound up out of the medal hunt after day one of his Luge runs.
He told nbcconnecticut.com that he was disappointed that he didn't have a better showing this time around.
I think everyone wants to do well and when it doesn’t work out it definitely hurts, but you know, it is what it is. There’s so much to learn from this. I’m still young I still have a lot of years under my belt to come, you know I’m only 22, so we’ll see what happens in Beijing. At the end of the day I’m still a two-time Olympian, you know. I’m living my dream every single day. My friends and family got to watch it, and that’s really what means the world to me."
West also thanked all his family and friends in Ridgefield for all their support, by the way a lot of Tucker's training took place at his Ridgefield home, which includes an Olympic Luge track in his backyard. (See below for a video tour of Tucker's house.)
It wasn’t all bad news for the USA Luge team, Chris Mazdzer won the silver medal, it was the first men's single luge medal ever.