Mar 8, 2025
Lenny Pizziola of Ishpeming navigates a corner a during World Cup Luge competition. Pizziola says his career started at a local festival in Negaunee. (Photo courtesy of Lenny Pizziola)
ISHPEMING — Lenny Pizziola never thought a guy like him from Ishpeming would compete on the world stage for sledding, and he never would have pictured that it came about from free luging at the annual Heikki Lunta festival in Negaunee.
“I only slid for a month before I made the team the next year,” said Pizziola. “People were laughing, because I was there for a month, ‘You almost did a full season in that month.’ They only slide Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Then I’d wake up at 7 a.m. to go to the track and help shovel, then I would luge, eat lunch, luge, eat dinner, go back and luge until the lights shut off and I would do that Friday, Saturday, Sunday for a month.”
Luge is not the only thing that Pizziola is busy with, he also is a fulltime student at Northern Michigan University studying athletic training, often works one or two jobs and coaches women’s pole vaulting at NMU.
“When I first started we had a few international people come over, one from Japan and one from Canada,” said Pizziola. “I remember them laughing at me because I would leave to go to class and then come back to the track after.”
Growing up, he always wanted to move out of Ishpeming, feeling it to be small and boring.
Pizziola smiles after a World Cup luge race. He found his love for the sport during the Heikki Lunta winter festival in Negaunee, and from there he sped to a top position on Team USA in natural luge. (Photo courtesy of Lenny Pizziola)
Yet now, many years down the line and after traveling all over the world, he often can’t wait to return home after the competition season.
“Most people know about Marquette but that gets smaller and smaller the farther away you go,” said Pizziola. “I go to the city and get that city aspect and you’re like, ‘I think I like the (Upper Peninsula) where I am.” That is exactly how I get.”
Growing up in the shadow of the National Ski Hall of Fame, and with the rich history of ski jumping, Pizziola hopes that luging can add to Ishpeming’s fame in winter sport, as well as hoping that it gains more popularity.
“There are your main sports like football, basketball, track and all that,” said Pizziola. “But there are so many more that you don’t even know about in high school until you try them. The amount of opportunities that are around are just insane, you just need to look for them.”
Pizziola has been a part of the United States Natural Track Luge Team since 2023, along with various other local and distant athletes like Katie Cookman, Elise Palecek, Torrey Cookman, Thomas Matthews and Mason Palecek. Along with his Negaunee and United States Team Luge coach Keith Whitman and international coach Jack Leslie.
“They really help with homesickness,” said Pizziola. “They are like a second family and I owe my coaches everything.”
During the 2025 FIL World Championship in Kuhtai, Austria, he saw Katie Cookman take sixth place, in women’s; Thomas Matthews get 14th in mens; Leonard Pizziola earn 20th; and Mason Palecek achieve 23rd. It will be another two years before the next FIL World Championship, and Pizziola believes he has a long career ahead of him since this is his second year doing luge and only his third year out of high school.
“I like joking with a lot of people that I’ll do it until I’m 29 or 30,” Pizziola said. “I made a few jokes to coach like, ‘You can’t retire from coaching until I retire from competing.’ Then coach would ask when that would be and I’d tell him, ‘You just have to wait and see.’”
To be able to travel for the World Cup races, Pizziola needs to raise money himself to afford the thousands of dollars of gear and airfare. He often provides local businesses the opportunity to sponsor him so he can show off local support traveling around the globe.
To further support the luge team, visit www.upluge.org/
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