Luger Jonny Gustafson Doesn't Feel Pressure. He Feeds Off It.
For most athletes, the Olympic Games introduce a kind of spotlight that is difficult to replicate. Luge, despite being the fastest sport in the Winter Olympics, is contested outside of widespread public attention for much of the season. Athletes compete week in and week out on the World Cup circuit, often in front of relatively small crowds, and then, suddenly, the scale shifts.
Jonny Gustafson has experienced that shift twice.
"You go from a couple hundred, couple thousand people watching…and then all of a sudden it goes up to a couple million. For me, and I think for a lot of athletes, it gives us that extra boost going into the race."
The same experience that reads as pressure to one athlete reads as fuel to another. What Jonny has figured out, over 17 years in the sport and two Olympic appearances, is to channel the heightened environment and use it as fuel.
Across my conversations with hundreds of members of the 2026 U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Team, a consistent pattern has emerged: the defining difference in those who are able to perform pressure is a learned ability to accept it and move within it with confidence.
Now one of the more experienced athletes on the U.S. team, Jonny Gustafson’s perspective is exactly that. One of confidence.
“I Belong Here”
He's one of the older athletes on the U.S. team now. He's competed through a pandemic Olympics where his family couldn't be in attendance. He came back and finished 11th at Milano Cortina, eight spots better than Beijing. His confidence on race day comes from a track record of proving to himself that he has reason to feel that way.
“I’m one of the older guys on the team now. I’ve been in this sport for 17 years. Going into Cortina, I carried that experience with me. I knew I deserved to be there. There wasn’t that doubt of ‘what if I mess up?’ It was more like, I belong here. And it means a lot knowing I have so many people supporting me.”
Gustafson’s sense of belonging is the product of time spent at the highest level of luge. At the same time, what’s sustained him through his career of such longevity is a continued love for the sport itself.
“Racing at the highest level…going from the top of the track, getting up to 90 miles per hour, hitting five or six Gs, and competing while all of this is going on…I just love it.”
At the end of the day, Gustafson just really loves the sport. So when the moment gets big, he doesn’t see it as pressure. But rather as an extra boost as he gets to do something he’s spent seventeen years working for.
ABOUT THIS SERIES
I'm Amy Wotovich and I am on a mission to interview 100% of Team USA's 2026 Olympic and Paralympic athletes to create the most comprehensive mindset record of a single Games cycle. What do elite competitors actually believe about pressure, identity, failure, and joy? Jonny Gustafson is one of hundreds of athletes sharing their unfiltered answers. Follow the journey!
