Luge Parent Reflects on a Different Kind of Olympic Legacy

Olympic legacy can take many forms.

In a traditional sense for host cities, that might be the venues left behind. It might be community initiatives meant to get youth and members of the community inspired to move or be healthy. And in at least one case, there was a direct path from the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City to the podium in Cortina, Italy — and a legacy of how an entire community’s support can lead to great individual accomplishments.

Ashley Farquharson made history in Cortina at this year’s Games, winning a bronze medal for Team USA in the women’s singles luge — only the second American woman to medal in luge, and the first in 12 years.

The 26-year-old Park City native was supported on site by her parents, Ben Farquharson and Stacey Engel, her two brothers and their significant others, and other close family and friends. And while their support was key in her development, another key was the proximity growing up to the Olympic track in Park City that was built for the 2002 Games and still hosts events today.

Without that track, Ben Farquharson reflected as he watched his daughter in Cortina, it’s likely Ashley would never have picked up the sport of luge.

“She wouldn’t be where she is right now because they wouldn’t have had that program,” he said. “This is a hard sport to really get behind because the climate, the hill drag, you know, everything like that. So if you have a place that you feel comfortable, that you can be a participant, it’s a huge help. Without all of those things coming into play, Ashley would not be where she’s at today.”

Softball Came First

Not every kid will aspire to be a luger. For Ashley, her sports career began in softball.

“She had some friends that were playing softball, and we would watch it a little bit on TV, and she wanted to be a pitcher,” Ben Farquharson said. “You know what? Park City’s not the softball mecca of the world. So it took a lot of work.”

That work included travel to Utah destinations such as St. George, Provo, Sandy and West Jordan. Home games just weren’t plentiful in Park City, where the winter weather limited the softball events the region could host.

Watching her brother attempt luge at the Olympic site, Ashley changed her sport at about age 11 and began training in the feet-first sliding discipline. Her father said that the team dynamic of softball proved beneficial in luge, where you compete as an individual but also as a member of a small and tight team of people who are specialists in what they do.

“Softball was a wonderful opportunity for her to develop those relationships with her teammates,” Ben Farquharson said. “And that’s kind of how she tries to approach this sport, which is an individual sport within a team.”

Watching from a Café

Four years ago, Ashley made the Olympic team and fought her way from a rough start to move from 26th position to finish 12th in Beijing.

“It’s an example of who she is,” her father said. “There’s no quit.”

But one key difference was her family was unable to travel to China due to the strict pandemic restrictions at those Games.

Instead, the Farquharson family gathered about 50 people at the coffee shop they own and operate in Park City, the Clockwork Café, to watch the race at 4:00 a.m. local time.

“The comfort and the love that was felt in those four walls of our café, it was gratifying,” Ben said. “It was reassuring.”

One person who showed up wasn’t even on the invite list, a 70-year-old Navy veteran who was walking by for some early coffee.

“He came in and saw what was going on, and he was so moved that he gave me his marksmanship coin, which is not money. It’s something that he received for his contributions. He said, ‘I wanted you to have this, because this is how much this event meant to me.’ We stopped. It was very special. It was very amazing.”

Advice from an Olympic Parent

As he watched his daughter slide into contention in 2026, Ben Farquharson looked back on the things that all who involved in youth sports know to be a truth: Support from a team and a community go a long way to developing kids into what they achieve on the field of play as well.

Ben, whose parents were divorced, recalled all the support he received from friends and neighbors as a young adult. “Then growing up with our daughter, and then all of the community members, and the other parents of the different athletes, we would work together to try to get their kids to a practice, to an event. You value how important that is.”

His message to other parents of athletes, even if they aren’t on the Olympic podium or don’t aspire to be?

“Please, please, please, never discourage, never dissuade, and never second guess your own efforts and your own purpose when you are supporting your children,” he said. “Their friends, your neighbors’ children, the fellow teammates, every effort that we put out there is what creates these opportunities for these kids to succeed. And without our Park City community, without the (Park City) Youth Sports Alliance, without Wasatch Luge Club, Ashley wouldn’t be where she is.”