Sean Hollander Has Chased Thousandths of a Second His Whole Life. Here's What It Taught Him
"You're going upwards of 90 miles an hour, you can't actively be thinking about all the micro steers and body weight shifts that you want to do in a luge run. You just have to trust your instincts and trust your muscle memory and just believe that you're gonna do the right thing."
For American luger Sean Hollander, that trust took years to build. And a few unexpected turns along the way.
His Olympic career includes a late pivot from singles to doubles, a shift made alongside Zach DiGregorio after both had spent years competing individually.
"We weren't even doing doubles up until the year that we qualified for the Beijing Olympics. We were both so good at singles, and we were like, what if we just tried to combine our talent and form a doubles team?"
It took some time for the duo to find their groove. Doubles luge requires shared execution, collective timing, a partnership that improves with repetition.
"Teamwork and communication is everything. It took us a while to kind of find our mojo, and we actually didn't start being very competitive in doubles until the year after the 2022 Olympics."
In luge, progress is measured in thousandths of a second, an almost imperceptible margin. For context, the average human reaction time to a visual stimulus is around 200–250 milliseconds (0.2–0.25 seconds), meaning you can’t even feel, process, or perceive the difference of a thousandth in real time.
"It can be extremely frustrating when your entire life feels like it's chasing a clock and thousandths of a second. A thousandth isn't even something the human body can even quantify…you finish a run that might be decided by five thousandths of a second and you're like, what do I even change?"
But that frustration, Hollander says, is also part of what keeps him coming back.
"Luge is so fun because you're constantly chasing excellence, and it's kind of almost unobtainable. There's no such thing as a perfect luge run. You're just constantly in this process of trying to improve."
That same sustained commitment has reshaped how Hollander experiences the course itself. Fear, earlier in his career, was a real presence. Especially on unfamiliar courses where the unknowns outnumbered the knowns.
"When you start, you're young, and there are moments that get your heart rate up, especially on tracks you've never been on. But for me nowadays, there are a lot of “knowns” in luge. You've been sliding on the same tracks for years, so I wouldn't say I ever really feel scared anymore of the actual aspect of sliding."
What he's describing is a psychological process. Repeated exposure to a threatening stimulus, paired with successful navigation of it, gradually recalibrates the brain's threat response. The track doesn't get safer. But the unknown, where fear actually lives, diminishes with every run.
But fear is adaptive and relocates. With two Olympic appearances now under his belt, the source of Hollander's stress comes down to his own self-imposed expectations.
"There's always pressure and expectations to compete, but it's not really fear. Not this late in my career."
This distinction matters. Fear, in its original form, was external. What he carries now is an internal byproduct of caring deeply about performance.
When asked what his luge career has taught him beyond the track, Hollander keeps it simple.
"If it feels right, just go for it."
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? Sean Hollander is one of hundreds of athletes sharing their unfiltered answers. Follow the journey!
