Of the 232 U.S. Olympians competing in Milan, only one hails from New York City.<\/p>\n
At just 21 years old, speedskater Kamryn Lute is living a dream she has chased since she was five.<\/p>\n
When asked if it felt real to be headed to her first Olympics \u2014 set to race this weekend \u2014 Lute said, \u201cI feel like it gets more real day by day, but it still doesn\u2019t feel like it\u2019s actually happening.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, it is real.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
Kamryn Lute is the only New York-born athlete on the U.S. team at the Milan Winter Olympics
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Lute, 21, is competing in short track speedskating, where skaters race head-to-head on a 111-meter rink
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She has trained six days a week since childhood, making sacrifices including relocating and switching to online high school classes
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Lute represents both Team USA and New York, carrying forward her parents\u2019 legacy of service in her own way<\/p>\n
Lute is in Italy representing Team USA at the Milan Winter Games. Behind her smile is sixteen years of dedication and sacrifice.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was born in Manhattan and we’ve had an apartment in Tudor City ever since,\u201d Lute said.<\/p>\n
Speedskating isn\u2019t a common path for New Yorkers, largely because there are so few rinks. But the Vancouver Games in 2010 captured Lute\u2019s imagination as a five-year-old.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think just the speed \u2014 it was like nothing I\u2019ve ever seen in sports,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The daughter of two Army veterans, Lute initially trained in Washington, D.C., where more skating options were available, plus a coach.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew from the get-go, I wanted to go to the games, so I’ve been training six days a week my whole life,\u201d Lute said.<\/p>\n
The sacrifices began early.<\/p>\n
At eight, Lute\u2019s family moved to D.C. full time so she could focus on training.<\/p>\n
In high school, she left friends behind and moved to a nontraditional form of schooling to prioritize her sport.<\/p>\n
\u201cEspecially in high school, moving away from friends,\u201d said Lute. \u201cAnd the last two years of high school I actually switched to online school just so that I could focus even more on training.\u201d<\/p>\n
College was also a strategic choice, as she attended the University of Utah to stay close to the U.S. Team training center in Salt Lake City.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don’t think I ever would have imagined myself living in Utah or going to the University of Utah, but this overarching goal was to succeed in skating,\u201d Lute said.<\/p>\n
Long days away from home filled with countless hours on the ice defined her youth.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut then once you get going, you’re kind of just stuck in it \u2014 not in a bad way, but that\u2019s what you want to do so you’ll just do anything to make it happen,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
At 21-years-old, the dream came true when she became one of eight American skaters competing in short track speedskating.<\/p>\n
\u00a0Unlike long track, where only two racers compete at a time on a 400-meter oval, short track uses a 111-meter rink, and skaters race head-to-head with only the top finishers in each heat.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to make very clean passes and really pre-plan whenever you’re going to make a move on someone because if you hit them or get in their way, you could get penalized, which prevents you from advancing,\u201d Lute said of the strategy.<\/p>\n
She said she is also excited to follow in her parents\u2019 footsteps of serving the nation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey represented the U.S. in the military and through their work, and now I can do it in my own way,\u201d said Lute.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s also representing her home state, sneaking in a brief visit to New York over Christmas.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid you go to the rink at Bryant Park or Rockefeller?\u201d asked Stef Manisero, NY1\u2019s sports anchor.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went, I didn\u2019t skate,\u201d Lute laughed. \u201cIt’s a little hectic, but it\u2019s fun. It makes me so happy. It’s my favorite place in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Win or lose, after three weeks in Milan, the city could become a close second.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Of the 232 U.S. Olympians competing in Milan, only one hails from New York City. At just 21…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132558,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2296,11101,25,231,9,24,12,56,63,65,64,15559,319,11102,27,200],"class_list":{"0":"post-132557","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-app-human-interest","9":"tag-app-sports","10":"tag-app-top-stories","11":"tag-human-interest","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-ny","16":"tag-nyc","17":"tag-nyc-headlines","18":"tag-nyc-news","19":"tag-olympics","20":"tag-sports","21":"tag-stef-manisero","22":"tag-top-stories","23":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}