YORK, Pa. — It's a dream of many to represent Team USA on the worlds biggest stage but to get there, it's something that takes years and years of practice to perfect. With COVID grounding their hopes of racing last year, it just made Frank Ike from Lititz, Pa and his partner Aiden Mueller, itch to race even that much more.
During their first international race in early December, they knew they could compete but didn’t know they’d walk away with a bronze medal.
“We were kind of taking that first race to see where we would stand in the field and getting a bronze was certainly nice," said Ike.
And not just one, but another bronze comes a week later in their third race as partners. Runs on the ice are few and far between and there's always multiple elements to work on
Ike said, “It’s two to five things that you might need to fix each run and working on a track like this where you might have 10-runs max. It can be hard but you have to find a way to do it."
The work continues off the sled.
“Our run might be 45 seconds but between runs might be half hour to 45 minutes and that whole time, we’re probably talking about lines. Where to drive. How to fix things," said Mueller.
With being on the road for weeks and months at a time, they don't have time to even think about being away from home when they are busy working on their sleds, doing school work, and sliding. The duo has a lot of trust in each other to perform. It helps when they know how each other pilot the sled, but they're never satisfied. They want to be great, so one day, they’ll be able to represent Team USA on the worlds biggest stage at the winter Olympics.
“I think it actually has a lot to do with throwing out these medals and forgetting about these medals and moving to the next track. Not getting cocky and just keep moving forward because we know we have the potential to do great," said Mueller.
The duo have one more year in the youth division before, hopefully, moving up to the junior team when they turn 18, next year.