Gabriel “Gabe”  Desautels, a senior at Rice, is a member of the USA Luge Junior National Team. For several years, he has trained in Lake Placid and Park City at their Olympic Training Facility.

While he is training at an Olympic-level in his sport, he also takes part in the larger Rice community, acting in Stunt Nite and playing on Rice sports teams. Throughout the academic year, he balances school work with training across the country alongside large competitions.

Can you describe luge for people who do not know what it is?

Luging is like sledding on a large track. There are many different tracks all across the world, and they’re all different, and you steer with these two – it’s hard to describe it – but you steer using the [handles], which are two long legs that stick out in front of the sled, and you just try to go for the fastest time.

What drew you to it, and what keeps bringing you back?

I think what drew me to it was I saw it on the Olympics one year, and I was just like, “That’s so sick.” I wanted to do that. And so figured it out, and now I’m in it. But what keeps bringing me back is just the adrenaline. I just can’t find it anywhere else.

What has been your proudest moment when Lugeing?

Just seeing where I’ve come from… just like seeing all the progress I’ve made throughout the years… At the tracks, you start at the lowest level. So the tracks go from curve one to curve 20 in Lake Placid. You start on curve 12; so you’re going really, really slow, but as you progress, you make your way further up along the track. As you learn how to slide, and you get better and better and better, and now I can slide. Last year I went up to… the very top of the track in Lake Placid, and I’ve been to the very top of the track in Park City, and I’ve raced from there. I just think to myself I could never have done that however many years ago, even two or three years ago…I think I would have died if I went up to men’s in Park City…I was really stoked about this, but I came in fourth in Junior Nationals at men’s, so I was sliding up in age group, so I was sledding. There was a guy who was 21 who was sliding against me. He beat me, obviously, but I was just so excited to come so close to winning. And I feel like that just shows how much progress I can make and how much I can do.

What is it like being on the Junior National Team?

It’s a lot different than last year. I was on the youth national team, and now, since I got moved up, I’m with all these older guys who are just so much more experienced than me. It’s just such a learning curve, because I get so much out of it. I just get to take so much from the guys and the girls too, because they’ve just…done so much more than me… It’s definitely a lot more fun than being around the younger kids. I like being the underdog, and the younger guy in the group, because I can just take so much out of it, and I can adapt and learn so quickly.

What does your training look like and how do you balance it with school?

So when I’m away–when I’m there– a busy week is two sliding sessions a day, which are two hours each. So that takes [up] like six hours of sliding. And then some days we have workouts along with that. And at the end of the night, I try and really hit it home with school so I’m not too behind when I come home. But I think there’s just no way I could get all of it done….It’s hard to juggle both, because… I try to focus 100% on luge, but also I have to do schoolwork… I try to get as much of the physical paperwork that I can get before I leave. So I can just have the papers there and ready [and] I can just do them whenever I feel like, … I feel like I can just go on portal, look at the assignment, do it and send it in…Rice has been really great about that where, like, they don’t give me too much hardships about coming home, like or like when I’m away, and maybe I’m not like, communicating as well as I should.

Are you training for the Olympics?

Oh yeah, I definitely feel like I would be let down if I didn’t make the Olympics because I’ve been doing this for so long and training so hard, that I just feel like I gotta get there now, and I gotta train as hard as I possibly can… My coaches always have told me the 2034 one in Park City because they’re home Olympics. So that means we have home track advantage, so they want us to slide and do as best as possible in Park City. So that’s the one I’m really, really looking at. Because then I’m an actual contender for that one, because then I’ll be of age; that’s eight years from now.

How did it feel to win a gold medal in your sophomore year?

I was really excited about that, because that was my first ever gold medal…It was just kind of surreal, almost, that I  won. I did everything I could, because I feel like before then I’d come in third place, like four times. And…I love making the top three. But you know, when you’re inside the top three, you always know there’s something better you could have done to maybe beat out those other guys ahead of you. So just to be that other guy who did so well, I think it was really fun for me. It was definitely very encouraging, because I definitely had my lows in the sport … It’s a very mental sport, because if you’re messing up one section of the track repeatedly, then it can get very hard. You can get very hard on yourself mentally. So just having those moments where you like, you have a positive moment, and you and you win. It’s just good for…mental [health] honestly.