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"Taking a flyer" has a number of meanings for Brookfield's Marcus Mueller.
Mueller recalls fishing a flier out of the trash in his childhood home. With nothing on the calendar that weekend for his family, he could give the U.S. Olympic luge clinic a try on the soap box derby track in Valley View Park in New Berlin.
Today, he's a flyer of a different kind, owner of a PA-28 Cherokee four-seat plane that he can use to visit family in Wisconsin, all while working toward a commercial pilot's license.
Oh, and he flies down the luge track, too. The 20-year-old and his doubles partner, Ansel Haugsjaa, have gotten so good that they just competed in their first Olympics.
Their result was nearly something beyond any outside expectation.
In the first run of the two-run competition Feb. 11 at the Cortina Sliding Centre in Cortina, Italy, Mueller (pronounced MYOO-ler) and Haugsjaa had the fastest time, with a track record.
But the top seven teams were tightly bunched, and the U.S. duo had the slightest hiccup in the second run.
"The whole top of the track was good," Mueller recalled. "We were gaining time through the whole top of the track, came out of curve 11 in the chicanes and kind of had this late drift left going into curve 14.
"There was a decision. We had a chance (of) hitting really bad and crashing, so we skated the sled a little bit to get out of the corner, and that's where we lost time."
Even in a sport where the times of the two runs are added together, two-tenths of a second in luge marked the difference between a gold medal and the U.S pair's sixth-place finish.
But 2030 isn't so far away, nor are the World Cup races in between Olympics.
"We've been working all of our lives for this, and it's always a dream to go to the Olympics," Mueller said. "To be able to do that at age 20 and 21, it really is a dream come true. To do as well as we did with the track record, it's a crazy privilege and it's amazing.
It might be hard to imagine that Mueller has had enough time to devote a lifetime of work to the luge, but since he was 11 years old, he's lived at least part of the year in Lake Placid, New York.
That clinic he attended in New Berlin – the one he heard about through a flier that had been distributed at his father's office and initially tossed in the trash? It went so well that U.S. Olympic coaches gave Mueller a training invitation.
"It was like a luge track with wheels," Mueller recalled of the New Berlin clinic. "They showed us how to go down the track, weave through some cones, and the coach evaluated us. If they wanted, they'd invite you down to Lake Placid. The intriguing part for me is there were free hot dogs that day."
Within the year, Mueller was training on ice at the facility in Lake Placid, one of two primary luge training facilities in the United States. At first, he spent summers in New York and then returned to Wisconsin for the winters. His time out east only increased from there.
"They have all the weight rooms and facilities and tracks and everything is here, so it's perfect to live out here and train," Mueller said.
He attended his freshman year at Brookfield Central High School in-person, with the rest of his high school career done remotely. He and Haugsjaa were partnered by age 13.
"There's no real break," Mueller said. "The first year (after the Olympics) is kind of the only slight break that we get; I won't feel as bad if we want to go on a trip or hang out with friends. I'll still be in Lake Placid, lifting, getting ready for the World Cup.
"Every World Cup and every summer matters for the 2030 Olympics. I'll work part-time in the summer and I'm a pilot, so I'll be doing that over the summer. … Getting a job through the next few summers would be the goal."
Back to those airplanes. Mueller said he'd always wanted to fly since he was little, and his parents, Teresa and Al, supported that dream, too.
"I went to flight school in Watertown and Waukesha, got my private pilot's license, and I was able to fly some people and fly for fun," he said. "I got my instrument rating, and now I'm working on my commercial license so I can get paid."
He said his own small aircraft doesn't have a name, but it comes in handy and often makes voyages to the Dodge County Airport near a family home in Beaver Dam.
"Being a pilot is a great experience, but the main thing is building hours," he said. "To get a job with a bigger airline, you need 1,200 to 1,500 hours and I've only been flying a few years, so I'm over 600 hours right now."
When he's not in the air, he's on the ice.
"Summer time, we normally have a pretty extensive lift in the morning, long warmups to make sure our body is really healthy, and then from there we pull starts in the start facility," he said. "The start is really the important part, where you can gain a lot of speed yourself (in luge). We have two start tracks at our indoor facility, and we pull six to eight starts a day normally. We alternate that with some core and agility on other days."
He trains often with Haugsjaa; the two are judged as a team when Team USA luge considers who to send to the Olympics. They've never changed partners in the past seven years.
"There's no separate training," Mueller said. "Any mistake on the sled, you make as a team."
Then, there's the travel for the World Cup circuit. The duo won the 2024 Junior World Championship and then earned silver at a Cortina test event, plus gold in the Lake Placid World Cup event. With nine of the 10 World Cup events finished for the season, the duo ranks 10th in their second season on the circuit.
In Italy, his parents, older brother and girlfriend were all on hand, with many more family members watching back home. In 2030, the Olympics will be held in the French Alps, and Mueller expects to be there.
"You saw what we could have done," he said. "First place was so in our grasp. Being 20, first Olympics for both of us, it's super-huge. We're really ready for 2030 and four more years of experience."
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Marcus Mueller flirted with Olympic gold in luge. What's next?
Continue reading...
Mueller recalls fishing a flier out of the trash in his childhood home. With nothing on the calendar that weekend for his family, he could give the U.S. Olympic luge clinic a try on the soap box derby track in Valley View Park in New Berlin.
Today, he's a flyer of a different kind, owner of a PA-28 Cherokee four-seat plane that he can use to visit family in Wisconsin, all while working toward a commercial pilot's license.
Oh, and he flies down the luge track, too. The 20-year-old and his doubles partner, Ansel Haugsjaa, have gotten so good that they just competed in their first Olympics.
Their result was nearly something beyond any outside expectation.
In the first run of the two-run competition Feb. 11 at the Cortina Sliding Centre in Cortina, Italy, Mueller (pronounced MYOO-ler) and Haugsjaa had the fastest time, with a track record.
But the top seven teams were tightly bunched, and the U.S. duo had the slightest hiccup in the second run.
"The whole top of the track was good," Mueller recalled. "We were gaining time through the whole top of the track, came out of curve 11 in the chicanes and kind of had this late drift left going into curve 14.
"There was a decision. We had a chance (of) hitting really bad and crashing, so we skated the sled a little bit to get out of the corner, and that's where we lost time."
Even in a sport where the times of the two runs are added together, two-tenths of a second in luge marked the difference between a gold medal and the U.S pair's sixth-place finish.
But 2030 isn't so far away, nor are the World Cup races in between Olympics.
"We've been working all of our lives for this, and it's always a dream to go to the Olympics," Mueller said. "To be able to do that at age 20 and 21, it really is a dream come true. To do as well as we did with the track record, it's a crazy privilege and it's amazing.
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How did Marcus Mueller get to the Olympics so young?
It might be hard to imagine that Mueller has had enough time to devote a lifetime of work to the luge, but since he was 11 years old, he's lived at least part of the year in Lake Placid, New York.
That clinic he attended in New Berlin – the one he heard about through a flier that had been distributed at his father's office and initially tossed in the trash? It went so well that U.S. Olympic coaches gave Mueller a training invitation.
"It was like a luge track with wheels," Mueller recalled of the New Berlin clinic. "They showed us how to go down the track, weave through some cones, and the coach evaluated us. If they wanted, they'd invite you down to Lake Placid. The intriguing part for me is there were free hot dogs that day."
Within the year, Mueller was training on ice at the facility in Lake Placid, one of two primary luge training facilities in the United States. At first, he spent summers in New York and then returned to Wisconsin for the winters. His time out east only increased from there.
"They have all the weight rooms and facilities and tracks and everything is here, so it's perfect to live out here and train," Mueller said.
He attended his freshman year at Brookfield Central High School in-person, with the rest of his high school career done remotely. He and Haugsjaa were partnered by age 13.
"There's no real break," Mueller said. "The first year (after the Olympics) is kind of the only slight break that we get; I won't feel as bad if we want to go on a trip or hang out with friends. I'll still be in Lake Placid, lifting, getting ready for the World Cup.
"Every World Cup and every summer matters for the 2030 Olympics. I'll work part-time in the summer and I'm a pilot, so I'll be doing that over the summer. … Getting a job through the next few summers would be the goal."
You must be registered for see images attach
Marcus Mueller is flying planes when not flying down the track
Back to those airplanes. Mueller said he'd always wanted to fly since he was little, and his parents, Teresa and Al, supported that dream, too.
"I went to flight school in Watertown and Waukesha, got my private pilot's license, and I was able to fly some people and fly for fun," he said. "I got my instrument rating, and now I'm working on my commercial license so I can get paid."
He said his own small aircraft doesn't have a name, but it comes in handy and often makes voyages to the Dodge County Airport near a family home in Beaver Dam.
"Being a pilot is a great experience, but the main thing is building hours," he said. "To get a job with a bigger airline, you need 1,200 to 1,500 hours and I've only been flying a few years, so I'm over 600 hours right now."
What does luge training look like for Marcus Mueller?
When he's not in the air, he's on the ice.
"Summer time, we normally have a pretty extensive lift in the morning, long warmups to make sure our body is really healthy, and then from there we pull starts in the start facility," he said. "The start is really the important part, where you can gain a lot of speed yourself (in luge). We have two start tracks at our indoor facility, and we pull six to eight starts a day normally. We alternate that with some core and agility on other days."
He trains often with Haugsjaa; the two are judged as a team when Team USA luge considers who to send to the Olympics. They've never changed partners in the past seven years.
You must be registered for see images attach
"There's no separate training," Mueller said. "Any mistake on the sled, you make as a team."
Then, there's the travel for the World Cup circuit. The duo won the 2024 Junior World Championship and then earned silver at a Cortina test event, plus gold in the Lake Placid World Cup event. With nine of the 10 World Cup events finished for the season, the duo ranks 10th in their second season on the circuit.
In Italy, his parents, older brother and girlfriend were all on hand, with many more family members watching back home. In 2030, the Olympics will be held in the French Alps, and Mueller expects to be there.
"You saw what we could have done," he said. "First place was so in our grasp. Being 20, first Olympics for both of us, it's super-huge. We're really ready for 2030 and four more years of experience."
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Marcus Mueller flirted with Olympic gold in luge. What's next?
Continue reading...
