The youngest skeleton world champion ever has already been through a lot.
Canada’s Hallie Clarke, 20, has only been sliding for seven years. But in that time, she’s represented Canada, switched allegiances to the U.S., returned back to the Maple Leaf alongside her longtime coach and won gold medals at both the junior and senior worlds.
Now, days ahead of her senior title defence in Lake Placid, N.Y., and less than a year away from her potential Olympic debut in Milan, Clarke struggles to contextualize her path.
“It’s been a bit of a crazy journey so far,” Clarke said. “And I think if I qualified for the Olympics, I don’t know, it’s a proud moment for me of like looking at what I accomplished, what I persevered through, all these different things to kind of come to that moment.”
Clarke’s follow-up season to her surprise gold medal has been solid, if unspectacular. She’s earned three top-10 finishes in five World Cup events, and she’s neither reached the podium nor placed outside the top 20.
But the consistency is by design as she and coach Joe Cecchini tinker to find the right mix and eliminate variables for the upcoming Olympic season.
“Expectations don’t change,” Cecchini said. “We’re still developing and working towards Milan and even this world championships. We’re adjusting our equipment, we’re adjusting our approach so that we work better as a unit.”
WATCH | Clarke becomes youngest female world champion:
19-year-old Hallie Clarke of Brighton, Ont., followed up on her under-20 world junior championship skeleton win last year in Winterberg, Germany by winning gold at the 2024 world championships on the same track.
Goal for Milan
The goal for Milan is to send a two-woman team of Clarke and veteran Jane Channell. Longtime slider Mirela Rahneva retired last off-season, while a cadre of young athletes — perhaps inspired by Clarke’s rapid rise — are eyeing 2030.
“The team is really transformed. And then we’re transitioning to try to position ourselves to being a world-leading organization, not so much for Milan, but for 2030 and moving forward,” Cecchini said.
For now, the world championships should provide a good testing ground. Competition begins Thursday at 9 a.m. ET with live coverage throughout the event available on CBCSports.ca and CBC Gem.
Though Clarke still must qualify, the 2026 Games should mark her Olympic debut.
Clarke, who was born in Belleville, Ont., but grew up in various American cities with her family, was an alternate on the Canadian team for the 2022 Olympics yet never so much as made the trip to Beijing.
She then spent a year with the American squad after members of Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton came forward with accusations of a toxic environment created by “authoritarian” leadership.”
But when the Canadian organization tabbed Cecchini — who, by chance, happened to watch her first-ever skeleton attempt at Calagry’s WinSport Arena — as its head coach, she jumped right back in.
Two years later, she said the culture shift is real.
“It’s changed a lot and for the better. Everyone’s working really well together. And I think that it’s progressed everyone so much further than when everyone was so individually focused,” Clarke said.
Team-first environment
Cecchini said he attempted to lay the foundation for a team-first environment and credited the athletes for buying in to his principles.
“We’ve had athletes stand up to each other and say, ‘This is who we are when we’re at our best and let’s make sure that we are doing those things.’ So we were seeing a lot of growth. We had a lot of growing pains at the beginning as we tried to create a structure, but now it’s really positive to see,” he said.
For Milan, the expected team of Clarke and Channell should pair an Olympic rookie with a tested veteran.
Cecchini said the duo “has a lot of strength” and should help Clarke gain valuable knowledge to dispense forward when the next generation is ready to compete in 2023.
“You have this experienced athlete, passionate athlete in Jane, who’s a really good leader within our team. And then we have a new athlete [Clarke] experiencing that stuff for the first time. And so having that peer group will work well for both of them,” Cecchini said.
For now, the duo will embark upon the world championships.
Perhaps most interesting is the location — Lake Placid was named the Olympic backup plan for next year if organizers are unable to complete their $90-million US renovation of a century-old track in Cortina.
For Clarke, who is still seeing new courses on the World Cup circuit, the Italy option might present an advantage over some of her veteran competitors who mostly rely on institutional track knowledge.
On the other hand, the Lake Placid option could lead to an immediate deficit versus U.S. racers who have plenty of familiarity with the Mt. Hoevenberg track, even if Clarke has more runs there than some of her European competitors.
“I’ve been to plenty of tracks for the first time in a race environment in the last few years. So I think just keeping that open mindset and really just trying to learn and grow from every training session, I’ll bring that into it,” Clarke said.
Given her unlikely path to becoming a world champion, Clarke is surely well-equipped to handle the uncertainty.
And even though she said she doesn’t feel a target on her back from other competitors, it goes without saying the young Canadian can no longer be ruled out as a gold-medal threat — either at worlds or the Olympics, as she demonstrated one year ago.
“I always say to Hallie, anytime she steps on the ice, she has the potential to win again,” Cecchini said. “But our focus isn’t there. It’s about working on each aspect and continuing to improve as we get closer and closer to Milan.”