Olympian Julia Clukey

The Total Tutor Neil Haley will interview Olympian Julia Clukey.

The 2006-2007 season was particularly important for Julia’s Olympic aspirations. After narrowly making the team for the past year and a half, she returned to competition and raced to a career-best 4th place finish at the Verizon U.S. National Championships. Her success caught the attention of her teammates, her competitors and even surprised herself.

“That was a big step for me. I established to my peers that I could compete among the best in the world. The 4th place finish gave me the confidence I needed to keep following my dream,” said Clukey.

At her first World Championship event in Igls, Austria in 2007, she finished 8th.

She finished in 4th place at the 2007-08 World Cup in Lake Placid and prides herself on being a fourth-time International Start Champion.

In November 2008, Julia again notched her career-best finish in a World Cup competition in Lake Placid, New York when she finished in 4th place, missing the podium by just .04 seconds. The time was also one of her four top-10 finishes during the 2007-08 World Cup season. In addition to her best race time, Julia is a four-time International Start Champion.

In 2010, Clukey reached one of her goals by qualifying for the U.S. Olympic team. For the first time in her career she competed in front of a national television audience at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, where she finished 17th.

In 2010-2011, Julia continued to climb in the World Cup rankings with top 15 finishes. She posted strong times in December that include a 1st place finish in a Nation’s Cup event and a 5th place finish in a World Cup Event at Park City, Utah in late December.