Luger John Fennell heads south to chase Olympic dream

At the 2015 Luge World Cup in Calgary, John Fennell knew his fate before even boarding the sled for his second run.

The 20-year-old Calgarian entered the race as the reigning Canadian champion. But after finishing a disappointing 24th on his home track, Fennell was cut from the national team for the second time in two years.

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Disappointed and disillusioned, the 2014 Canadian Olympian immediately enrolled in full-time business courses at the University of Calgary. He needed to get on with his life.

Or so he thought.

"Honestly, I was really conflicted," says Fennell, now 22. "My heart wasn't really in being at school. I thought if I had a window to be an Olympic athlete, then I needed to capitalize on it."

A dual Canada-U.S. citizen, Fennell contacted the American luge team and flew down to Lake Placid, N.Y., to meet with the high-performance director.

By spring he packed up his books, surrendered his Canadian carding money and moved south for a new start.

And now, after an 18-month reboot, Fennell is back in Calgary to compete in the 2017 Luge World Cup at Winsport's Canada Olympic Park on Friday.

Only this time, he is representing the United States of America.

"I wasn't super vocal about the move," says Fennell, who was born in Colorado but moved to Calgary at age five. "Last year, I just kept everything to myself. I had to re-establish myself."

Starting at the bottom

To re-establish himself, Fennell started at the bottom and worked his way up the proverbial luge track. Without funding, he took on a bartending gig and secured a sales position at Dick's Sporting Goods in Plattsburgh, N.Y.

In between shifts, he logged long hours at the gym and on the track.

"I was super lonely and underestimated how tough it would be," says Fennell, the son of former Canadian Football League superstar David Fennell and brother of former Michigan State fullback David Fennell Jr. "The concept of moving my life, living off my savings account and trying to work two jobs to support myself — it honestly felt like the mountain was too big to climb."

To climb the mountain, Fennell conducted a blunt appraisal of his strengths and weaknesses. He soaked up constructive criticism and learned to relax instead of tensing up on his sled.

"It felt like there was too much stuff that I had to do," he says. "At times, it felt that I would never get back to where I was in Canada on the national team.

"So I'm really proud to say I did that in a year when I had no standing in the U.S. program."

Indeed, the Americans promised Fennell nothing. He needed to prove he belonged and muscle his way back onto the World Cup circuit.

"My biggest problem before was that I would break form," says Fennell, who finished seventh at the 2011 Youth Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria. "If anything went wrong on the track, I would put my feet down and lift my shoulders up, and lose control of the sled."

Losing control is never a good thing at speeds greater than 100 km/h.

"My story in Canada was always, 'Well, he had one good run then an explosion on the second run,'" Fennell says. "Before, I had good starts, but now I can make it down the track and fix small issues and bigger issues along the way."

Mental torture

At age 18, Fennell crossed the line in 27th place at the 2014 Sochi Olympics. Three months later, he revealed the mental torture he endured in Russia as a gay man competing in a country openly hostile to members of the LBGTQ community.

His goal in 2018: to secure one of three men's singles spots on the U.S. Olympic luge team and compete in Pyeongchang without fear.

"Everybody has a place in sport"

10 years ago

Duration 5:31

CBC Calgary sits down with Olympian John Fennell to discuss his experience of coming out after the Sochi Games.

"I'm in such a better mental spot than going into the Sochi Games," he says. "I was so nervous and so distracted about what was going on around me.

"If I get a spot on the U.S. Olympic team, I'll know this is the hardest thing I've ever done. I've overcome so much to get here. I uprooted my life and have grown up so much as a person.

"I'll feel complete, and it will be a dream come true."