Draft:Elizabeth Kleinheinz

Elizabeth "Ellie" Kleinheinz (born September 8, 2007) is an American luger. She is a two-time Youth National Champion.. and represented the United States at the 2024 Winter Youth Olympics

Luge Beginnings
Kleinheinz began her luge career at the age of 11 after attending a White Castle Slider Search in Palo Alto, CA put on by USA Luge. She was taught the basics of riding a luge sled, including positioning, steering and stopping. Once these skills were developed, she took several runs down a paved luge course on a wheel-equipped luge sled. After showing promise in the summer program she was invited to Lake Placid, NY, in the winter of 2019 to try luge on ice at the USA Luge training facility at Mt. Van Hovenberg. As one of the top young athletes from the Slide Search groups she was selected for the next year’s development team.

Youth Career
Kleinheinz won her first individual luge medal, gold, at the 2020 Empire State Games in Lake Placid, New York.

She won a second Empire State Games gold medal when she returned to Lake Placid and won in 2022 (2021 was cancelled due to COVID-19).

She won the US Youth B National Championship in 2020.

In November 2022 Kleinheinz was promoted to the U.S. Candidate Team and traveled to train and compete in Bludenz, Austria and Sigulda, Latvia. Upon returning to the US, she was one of three women sliders to earn enough qualifying points to travel to South Korea, for the 2023 Asian Continental Cup.

She won the US Youth A National Championship in 2023.

She represented the United States at the 2024 Winter Youth Olympics in the women's single's luge event