Native, Army Sergeant Gears For Second Olympics

Sgt. Matthew Mortensen, front, with luge partner Jayson Terdiman at the Lake Placid World Cup in December 2017. Photo/Placid Times Photography/John DiGiacomo

By Janee Law
jlaw@longislandergroup.com

Sgt. Matthew Mortensen of the United States Army is gearing up for what will be his second appearance in the Winter Olympics Games.

Mortensen, a former Huntington Station resident, will be making the trip to PyeongChang, South Korea next month to compete with the U.S. Luge team in the XXIII Olympic Winter Games.

He will compete in doubles races with luge partner Jayson Terdiman, of Berwick, Pennsylvania. The duo has been competing together for four seasons.

A member of the 1156th Engineer Company headquartered in upstate Kingston, Mortensen is part of the Army World Class Athlete Program. It allows 80 athletes to compete in elite level sports while simultaneously serving in military, he said.

Mortensen, 32, said he was excited and relieved when he learned on Dec. 16, 2017 that he’d been selected to represent his country. The call came after a qualification process that was based on the World Cup circuit, which took place October through December last year. He secured an ‘A’ tier qualification for the 2018 Olympics after taking fifth place in the Winterberg, Germany World Cup doubles races.

“I know that, because of my past experience of going to the games, there’s a lot of work and a lot of stress that will go into it,” he said. “I have a bit more of an idea of what to expect.”

Mortensen took up the sport in 1996, when Verizon, the sport’s sponsor at the time, hosted an event calling for potential luge athletes. Since his father, Jerry, worked for Verizon, Mortensen decided to give the sport a try.

“I was a pretty athletic kid, and it just seemed like a cool thing to do,” Mortensen said. “I went there, tried it out and fell in love with it.”

Mortensen said he was eventually invited to Lake Placid to try the sport on ice. When he did, it “opened up my eyes to the world of Winter Olympics sports.” He made the U.S. Luge Team in 1997.

Mortensen said he couldn’t have advanced as far as he has without his family’s support.

One of nine children, Mortensen said his father and mother Mary, along with grandparents John and Virginia Mortensen, of Huntington Station, have always helped along the way.

“My grandparents were helping to drive me from Long Island to Lake Placid during the winter, which is not an easy task,” he said. “It’s a 5-6 hour drive and very often they were going up and down in one day so I can participate in the sport.”

Mortensen’s first Olympic appearance came in 2014, when he competed in Sochi, Russia and finished 14th with then-partner Preston Griffall.

This time around, facing major competition in Germany, Austria and Latvia, he’s hoping to have good, clean runs.

“It doesn’t feel great to go to a major competition and have poor runs,” he said. “You don’t feel like you put your best foot forward, so I’m more or less focused on myself and just trying to get down cleanly.

“I know if I do that, then we’ll probably end up in a pretty good place down the track.”

Mortensen grew up playing baseball, basketball and soccer. He attended Saint Dominic High School in Oyster Bay and earned his degree in business communication at DeVry University in October 2017, through the military.

After missing out on the 2010 Olympic team, he decided to enlist in the Army.

“I didn’t know what I was doing after the sport was over and I realized that I had to set up a future for my life,” he said. “By joining the Army, I was able to do that and then get into the Army World Class Athlete Program.”

He continued, “It provided a way for me to not only be a soldier and maintain my military requirements, but be an athlete at the same time.”

Mortensen’s first competition is slated for Feb. 14. If he’s selected to the team relay, he’ll also compete Feb. 15.