(August 30, 2023) – For our fourth athlete profile of 2023 (and the 42nd in the “Getting to Know…” series) we catch up with Team USA’s Ashley Farquharson. Ashley finished 12th in the 2022 Olympic Games in women’s singles and seventh in the team relay event. Earlier that season she’d won silver in the relay. In the 2022/2023 season she had a best finish of fourth (Park City) ,and in the 2021 World Championships she won bronze in the U23 race.
Slider: Ashley Farquharson
Team: USA Luge
Hometown: Park City, USA
Home track: Park City
Glitter Provider: Designer Dust Co.
Like we do every time, we’ll start with this: What’s your favorite track and why?
I feel like the easy answer is Park City, because it’s the track that made me love the sport and taught me how to slide.
Second answer would be Sochi, because it will kick your butt and you really have to be “on” all the way down the track, there’s no real part of the track where you can just let the sled run. It’s one of the most rewarding feelings when you get it right, and it’s so fun and flows so nicely.
Unrelated to the track, where is your favorite town on the schedule to visit?
Probably Innsbruck or Whistler. Innsbruck is so cool, there’s so much going on and so many things to do. There’s a lot of great restaurants, lots of sights to see. We went tobogganing a few years ago and that was fun…I just always have a good time there, and the weather is always really nice.
Whistler village is really cool because it’s kind of a “home away from home”. You’re in North America and everyone speaks English and it’s nice being in a small mountain town again.
Where’s a favorite place to visit completely unrelated to the sport?
My aunt and uncle have a hotel in Costa Rica. I went there last summer after the Olympics and it was just so amazing, and definitely one of my top vacations ever!
It’s beautiful there. I thought it was really cool and it was a very different cultural experience from rural Germany! I actually grew up taking Spanish classes and speaking Spanish, so I actually got to use my skills which was cool.
I assume you don’t get to use those skills a whole lot on tour?
Not at all! I took Spanish because everyone around me growing up spoke Spanish and I thought “This is perfect!” and WRONG! I move to upstate New York and I spent all my time in Germany!
Tell me about your dogs.
I have two chihuahuas, Tak and Harper! I got Tack when I was 10, so he’s 14 now which is just crazy. He’s just a grumpy old man, he likes to lay in the sun and bark!
Harper was one of the Cool Gifts for my mom because my older brother and I were moving out of the house at the same time and she was kind of devastated. So we got her this dog, and they’re attached at the hip and go everywhere together!
Chihuahuas have a reputation for having lots of energy and sometimes being kind of jerks, how are Tack and Harper?
So they have their people that they really like and they would go to war for those people! But any strangers are really on the “no list”.
As for energy, they do not. They have one lap around the block in them and then they’re done. They’re like “Alight, my heart is the size of a grape so I’m done and going to sleep!”
The season has been over for a bit, and you’re getting back into training, what did you do with your downtime?
I usually go home to Park City and spend a lot of time with my family. We’ll go out to California and see some of my extended family. I’ll try to do as little as possible.
Do you think about luge and training or do you just zone out?
When I’m going to see my family they always ask me about luge, the season, how it went and if I’m going to keep going and whatever. So when I’m talking to them it’s mostly about luge. But after that, in the dead zone, I try not to do that. I try to think about how I would live if I weren’t an elite athlete. And I’ll do much different exercises…and a much different lifestyle so it’s not the same thing every time.
I usually do more cardio-based activities instead of strength-based. I’ll do yoga or dance classes or a pilates class. I walk my dogs a lot (one lap around the block!) and I like to go with my parents to work. They’ve got three storefronts in Park City so I help them there. I also hang out with friends form high school and stuff.
I like doing Zumba classes, it’s the most fun exercise in the world. There’s no rules, and no steps!
Also, I do a lot of baking and cooking…I’ve got a sour dough starter!
Okay, so a lot of people have names for their starter, do you?
I don’t! My brother gave it to me, he gave me some of his. He said his was named Rupert…but I’m not sure if I’m going to keep that. So for now it’s Rupert Jr.
You and some teammates have a strong glitter game, how did that come about?
So it actually started because of Maddie Phaneuf, the biathlete, she wears glitter when she races. Brittney (Arndt) and I were in a drug store in Germany and saw some glitter and Brittney was like “…there’s really no reason why we shouldn’t wear glitter!” and I was like “You’re right!” and since then we’ve worn glitter at every race!
It’s been really cool! Robert Fegg, my coach, was in Park City before the Olympics and my dad sent him with a care package for me. It was a pair of aviator sunglasses with the American flag on the outside and like eight tubes of glitter!
Was eight tubes enough?
Yes, I still have them!
Is that the same glitter you’re working with now?
I have a bunch of different kinds. I still have from NYX, the makeup brand that was the first kind that Brittney and I ever got. Then I have the tubes that my dad got me, they’re unmarked and I have no idea who makes them. Then I was at the Olympics I got a message from a lady who has her own makeup line calle Designer Dust Co. and she was like “Hey, can I send you some of my glitter?” and she makes big glitter with chunks and shapes and stuff, so that’s what I’m wearing now.
I was in Las Vegas for a sponsorship event a couple of weeks ago, and she was like “I’m in Vegas, come and see me!” so I went over to her little shop…she calls it the Glitter Factory…and I got to make my own shade of glitter. It’s just been really cool, I get so many messages from girls who tell me I’ve inspired them to wear glitter when they’re doing things. And that’s awesome…a lot of people think that as a female athlete you’re not allowed to be girly or do girly stuff. And glitter is definitely branded as a girly thing, so it’s cool that we can be out here doing cool stuff and still be girly!
What’s the name of the shade of glitter you created?
It’s called “Going for Pink”! Like going for gold, but it’s pink!
Your first World Cup medal was a team medal. Everyone seems to enjoy it, do you feel like there’s more or less pressure on you for that run?
It feels like less pressure, but I think that’s largely due to the fact that my teammates are awesome. If I was racing for another country it might be different, but everyone is super chill. Obviously we all want to do our best all of the time, but it’s definitely more of a fun event. At least in my mind.
What is your pre-race routine?
I usually try to plan my meal around what time I’ll be racing, so that I can have the energy that I need at the time that I need it. And I usually try to do some sort of yoga routine in the morning, just to get up and get the blood flowing and everything.
I’m very against being superstitious. So if I find myself getting stuck in a routine like “Oh, I did so well last week and I had eight sips of coffee”, I won’t drink any coffee or something. So if I find myself thinking like that I’ll stop, rewind, and start over with a clean slate. I try to not do any particular routine but just do things that will help me mentally be ready for the race.
Do you have any music you listen to before your run?
I’ll usually listen to music during my warmups. It’s rotating…there’s not really a genre in particular but it’s more songs that are making me happy in that moment. It’s usually like five or ten songs that I rotate through. Last year it was a lot of Taylor Swift…but there are some songs that are staples. Like “I Want You Back” by the Jackson 5 is always on there.
Once it gets time for me to get dressed and get my suit on I’ll put the headphones away.
Everyone’s got a curve/track section that they don’t like, which is yours?
Mine is 12 and 13 in Sigulda. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten it right one single time. Maybe once I got close? But that was it.
You want to be so early into 13 that you’re almost going to flip, and sometimes you do flip! So you think “well I can’t go THAT early!”. It’s like one millimeter off and you go over. It’s something that’s so precise and it’s SO much time when you get it wrong. And I’ve never had that much trust and confidence in myself where I’ve been able to thread the needle and get it right.
You have to deal with it twice this year, too. Is it tough when you get to the track and know that you have to deal with something like that?
It is. It’s tough during preseason because we’re taking like eight runs a day and every run there’s a coach there and they’re like “NOPE! WRONG!” and it’s like “Okay, I’ll try again!”
How much of a time difference are you looking at between it being right and wrong?
It depends on just how wrong you get it. Most of the time I could probably find a tenth there just based on how hard I have to correct. It’s a really, really firm steer as it is, so when you go jus a centimeter later you’re going to be that much more behind.
What’s been the hardest thing you’ve gone through sliding?
I crashed at the Youth Olympics. And that was the end of the world for me at the time because I was 16, and it was probably the worst time. It was the first time it was just me, I was the only person there from the United States and I made the same mistake that I was making in training, and it really felt like a huge fail.
How long did it take you to get past that?
I don’t know, I think it just really made me realize what I need to do when I race. And that’s to keep it lighthearted. And whenever I find myself putting a lot of pressure on myself, like “that isn’t good enough, you have to do better!” it just goes really downhill. So that was the first time I really realized that I was taking it WAY too seriously. I thought “you’re obviously here because you want to be the best. But you’re also here because it’s fun and if you take that out, what are you doing?”
And that was really a turning point in my career and a lesson I’ve had to learn many times over. Because sometimes I’m like “NO, I’M FINE, I’M HAVING FUN!” which is clearly not true! It was kind of eye opening though. It was like “you really have to relax about this!”
On the other side, what’s your favorite sliding sport memory?
The Opening Ceremony at the Olympics was unforgettable. Just so cool.
Also, the test event in Beijing where I got the silver in the team event. It was my first World Cup medal. It was really, really fun and everyone was really happy.
I feel like there’s just so many. And really so many things from the Olympics were so cool. My parents couldn’t come, obviously. They have these delis in Park City and they have a loyalty program where you get a free meal for every ten you buy. And its linked to people’s emails, and they’ve never emailed people once. But they sent an email to everyone who’s ever signed up for this program to invite them to a watch party at the deli at 5:00 AM to watch me slide at the Olympics! And like 60 people showed up!
So that was really cool, seeing the pictures of everybody and knowing that my parents weren’t just by themselves was really special.