SGT Courtney Zablocki: Luge

Sergeant Courtney Zablocki joined the Colorado Army National Guard after her fourth-place finish at the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Torino, Italy. She has finished in the top 10 in the past two World Championships, and though she has not yet won a medal at a World Cup event, she did place fourth in December 2001, in Igls, Austria. At the World Cup event on the Cesana Pariol track, a test event for the Torino Olympics, Zablocki finished fifth.

A former gymnast and diver, Zablocki started in luge as a private first class in the Colorado National Guard after seeing a luge clinic advertised at a local recreation center. She won the street luge time trial at the clinic and later received an invitation to Lake Placid, NY, to try the sport on ice.

After her first run down the ice chute, she said to herself, “OK, that’s it. I’m never doing that again.” But her second run was less scary, and she thought maybe the sport could be fun. She attended one more screening camp at Lake Placid before being named to the U.S. development team. She began competing internationally at the junior level in the 1996-1997 season.

Noteworthy

  • Highest U.S. Women’s Olympic finish in Torino, Italy, 2006 (4th Place)
  • U.S. track record holder, Salt Lake City
  • Two-time National Champion (2004-2005, 2005-2006)
  • Challenge Cup Bronze medalist
  • 2007 Verizon U.S. National Championships Bronze medalist
  • Winter 2006 World Cup team event Bronze medalist
  • 2005-2006 Verizon U.S. National Champion
  • 2002 Olympian
  • Fall 2005 World Cup team event Gold medalist
  • Inducted into the Colorado Sports Women Hall of Fame in 2006
  • Member of the Colorado Army National Guard

In Her Own Words
“It hasn’t been easy … The hardest part was trying to be consistent; to earn the best result you possibly could, so you could get whatever tier you needed to make the Olympic Team.”