Cammy Myler

Luge

They talk about finding the ideal line, the most direct, trouble-free route through the twists and turns of a luge track.

They talk about finding it in life.

Never more true for Cammy Myler than in the Winter Olympics of 1994, when she wondered if she should be in Norway competing or at home with her brother Tim, who was dying of cancer.

Never more true than now, as she awaits word on her applications to law school, her appearance in the Winter Games possibly the career-finale for the four-time Olympian and seven-time national champion, clearly the United States’ best-ever female sledder.

“If nobody lets me in, I’ll continue sliding,” the Dartmouth grad said.

In her previous Olympics, Myler finished ninth at Calgary in 1988, fifth at Albertville in ‘92 and 11th at Lillehammer, which she remembers as the best and worst of times.

Myler was honored there by being selected as the U.S. flag carrier in the opening ceremony, but she was not at peace.

“There were a lot of external pressures,” she said. “It was difficult to stay focused.”

Her parents were in the process of divorce. Tim, the brother who had first put her on a sled behind their Lake Placid, N.Y., home when she was 12, was dying.

“I really struggled,” Myler said. “I was torn between feeling like I should be at home with Tim and wanting to pursue my dream. It’s so easy when you’re competing on an elite level to get caught up and forget there’s another world out there. Tim wanted me to stay, but I still wrestle with that. His illness and death put a lot of things in perspective for me and is the reason it’s important for me to have some balance in my life, not just luge.”