Salisbury Teen Ranked Second in World in Youth Luge

Instead of spending her days in classrooms like most other Salisbury Township teens, Theresa Buckley spends her days going downhill fast. As one of the youngest Olympic hopefuls perfecting their skills in Lake Placid, N.Y., she’s a member of the Junior National Candidate Luge Team, speeding down an icy tunnel at 65 m.p.h.

The 15-year-old is ranked No. 2 in the world in the youth division of the sport, and on Jan. 28, will compete in her fifth Junior World Cup Race in Winterberg, Germany.

Last season, Buckley won the USA Luge Youth “A” National championship for women singles ages 14-21 in Lake Placid on March 20, and became the 2011 Youth National Champion in her age group.

At the beginning of this season, on Nov. 19 and 22 in Park City, Utah, she took gold medals in two girls singles Junior World Cup races.

Next came races in Calgary, Canada, where she placed 13th, and Igls, Austria, where she came in 12th. “The traveling is definitely one of my favorite parts,” she says, “seeing the world at such a young age and meeting new people everywhere.”

In Lake Placid, she begins her day with six luge runs on one of the only Olympic training luge tracks in the U.S. “Strength is very important,” says Buckley, who is 5’ 10” tall. Afternoons, she prepares her sled for the next day by tightening bolts and slicking runners, and then it’s schoolwork time.

After completing seventh grade at , Buckley switched to the Pennsylvania Cyber School so she could study and do homework wherever her training and racing schedule takes her. She’s now a 9th grader, studying biology, geometry, economics, English, German and phys ed.

Born in Munich, Germany, Buckley and family came to Salisbury Township in 1998 when her father, Hans Buckley took a job with B. Braun, an international medical products company with Lehigh Valley facilities. The whole family skis; Theresa’s mother, Tina Buckley, runs the ski school at Blue Mountain Ski Area near Palmerton, where Theresa first discovered her talent for luge.

In 2008, the USA Luge Association set up a course during the ski area’s Winter Festival to introduce young athletes to the sport. Based on her performance, Buckley, who was 12 at the time, was invited to a screening camp in Lake Placid that summer, and by that fall, was one of seven youngsters chosen for the Junior National Development Team. “Before I took my first luge run, I had no idea to try to make the team,” says Buckley.

If her quick success continues, she could qualify for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia. “Korea in 2018 is more realistic for her,” says her father, Hans Buckley.  “Usually sliders hit their prime in their mid 20s.

“We feel very excited and very enthusiastic about it all,” he continues, “but of course there is also an element of worry. We always tell her this has to be a goal for you, not for us. It’s got to be about her.”

Like all athletes, Theresa Buckley has had some physical challenges. She tore an ACL (knee ligament) playing soccer in middle school and broke a kneecap doing luge a couple years ago in Lake Placid. But no matter what happens in the meantime, Theresa Buckley hopes to be playing soccer for in spring.