credits: Getty Images/Universal Sports

Erin Hamlin will lead a team of 18 U.S. luge athletes for the fall season this year.

Erin Hamlin is a quiet champion. Or maybe she doesn’t like how she looks in yellow.  The week after Hamlin’s stunning World Luge Championship victory in February on her home track in Lake Placid, Hamlin earned the right to wear a special piece of equipment.

A yellow competition bib, the color worn by the world champion, was ready for Hamlin in Calgary. The luge world champion and World Cup series points leader wear different color bibs to distinguish them from the field.

Hamlin did not want to stand out. The 22-year-old Remsen woman, aiming for the U.S. Olympic team this fall, is competitive but not boastful.

USA Luge teammate Ashley Walden noticed Hamlin’s unease with the bib, and encouraged her to put it on.“I am not sure about Erin being reluctant about putting on the bib,” Walden wrote in an e-mail, “But she is shy, and I remember that she was nervous to put on the bib the first time because it stood out.”

Next week, Hamlin returns to Calgary with the U.S. Senior National Team for the start of the 2009-2010 World Cup season.

Hamlin is exempt from team qualifying because of her results last season. With fewer than 100 days until the Winter Olympics, Hamlin’s goal is completing her qualifying to compete on the fast track in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada, outside of Vancouver.

Hamlin finalizes her trip to the Olympics with a top-five finish at any of the first four World Cup series races: Calgary; Igls, Austria; Altenberg, Germany; and Lillehammer, Norway.

The level-headed Hamlin is not going to change how she approaches early races because of Olympic qualifying.

credits: Jonathan Ferrey, Getty Images

Hamlin’s 23rd birthday falls during the Calgary stay, and if she makes the Olympic team as expected, she will distinguish herself beyond the color of her competition bib. A trip to Whistler this winter, and Hamlin will be a two-time Olympian, adding to her growing list of accomplishments in the sport.

A two-time U.S. Junior National champion, Hamlin unexpectedly raced onto the U.S. Olympic team four years ago and finished 12th in Torino, Italy. Hamlin won the 2009 world championship earlier this year with a track-record second run to snap the German women’s 99-international event winning steak. She closed the 2008-2009 season with three top-10 finishes including a seventh place in Calgary and a fifth place on Whistler Olympic track.

She is not counting on an Olympic berth yet. Hamlin, a unique blend of confidence and caution, knows she is constantly being pushed by teammates and she will not remain the U.S. top women’s singles slider unless she works for it.

“We have such a strong team,” Hamlin said in August following one of the USA Luge Slider Search sessions in Utica. “There are people pushing me every day. I can’t be off my game at all.”

Hamlin stayed at the Olympic Training Center through the spring and summer to prepare for the upcoming season. She worked at least three times a week on starts, a weakness in her sliding but a critical part of a fast luge run. The offseason work made for a smooth on-ice transition in early October.

“Things fell into place quickly,” Hamlin said. “We did a lot of wheel training (in the offseason) and doing that I feel comfortable more quickly.”

Hamlin gains notoriety
Much has changed for Hamlin as an athlete from last year. With the world championship came notoriety for Hamlin and the sport. Not all the attention is welcomed by the young woman who considers herself low key. And she remains unchanged for one teammate who has not noticed a significant difference in Hamlin from pre-World Championship to now.

“Nah,” longtime men’s singles slider Tony Benshoof said. “It’s tough to say. A little more confident maybe.”

Luge requires consistency in action and temperament, and Hamlin’s grounded personality is a reason for her success. On-track victories will not change that.

“Erin has a good head on her shoulders,” women’s singles teammate Julia Clukey said. “Her training has not changed.

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