Logan Wudi has always had an underlying feeling that she was training for something bigger her whole life, but she never knew exactly what.
It wasn’t until 2017 when Wudi, a fifth-year finance student at OU, discovered the sport of skeleton, and her lifelong dedication to athleticism made sense and her journey to compete in the Olympics began.
Skeleton is a winter sport similar to bobsled, but in skeleton the sled is ridden by a single person lying facedown and headfirst.
The sport skeleton requires an intense amount of training, as it has a “huge learning curve” in learning how to drive the sled as well as the high level of conditioning, Wudi said.
Skeleton races begin with a 30- to 45-meter running start, and the rider jumps onto the sled and rides headfirst down a mile-long frozen track. The riders typically go between 60 and 80 mph, and it takes less than a minute to get down the track, Wudi said.
“I remember before I ever went down, I was like, ‘I bet it's going to be just like a water slide’ ... and I did it and I was like, ‘This is nothing like what I expected it to be,’” Wudi said. “This is terrifying, but the funnest thing I’ve ever done in my life… It's going by so fast. You blink, and you're already like five corners in.”
Wudi grew up as a gymnast, and she even trained in her hometown of Houston with Olympic gymnast Simone Biles.
“I feel like I have secretly been training my whole life,” Wudi said. “Even after I quit gymnastics when I was like 15, I had always still been active.”
It wasn’t until she met her boyfriend, 29-year-old Sam McGuffie, that she began to take her training more seriously, Wudi said.
McGuffie represented the United States in bobsled at the 2018 Winter Olympics, and he played football and ran track at the University of Michigan and later Rice University. After meeting McGuffie, Wudi was introduced to bobsled and eventually skeleton, she said.
“He really got me into the gym, and I was squatting more than everybody else around me,” Wudi said. “I was like, I feel like there's something I need to do ... I feel like I have this potential I don't want to go to waste because I think I can do something with it, and then I found this sport.”
Wudi and McGuffie starting training together, and eventually McGuffie put her in contact with the strength coach who trained him for bobsled.
“There was a connection, you know. I was doing bobsled, and she’s pretty fast and athletic, and it makes sense to kind of give it a shot, so she did,” McGuffie said. “She did gymnastics for like 12 years … but she didn’t really look at sports as a real — something she could do at the Olympics. And this opportunity presented itself … She’s done well so far, and she’s just starting out.”
When Wudi is in season from October to March and not in Lake Placid, she travels to Oklahoma City three to four days per week to train with Jared Ka’aiohelo. Ka’aiohelo is the owner of Athlete Inc., which is a high-performance gym that trains professional athletes and those wanting to maximize their athletic potential.
“A lot of it is conditioning because it is a tiring, tiring sport even though you’re laying on a sled,” Ka’aiohelo said. “It’s Olympic-level stuff, and ... for someone just to kind of come off the street and hop in that kind of training was pretty impressive, and Logan had that unique ability. She’s very coachable.”
Both McGuffie and Ka’aiohelo said they have been impressed at the quick progress Wudi has made, as she does not have experience in training at this high of a level.
“Her starting from, really, scratch to coming and having the opportunity to compete at an Olympic level is impressive, and all credit to her for putting in the work and dedication to do that — along with being a college student and managing her time well, which helped her results,” Ka’aiohelo said. “She was on fire, she was structured, she was motivated and came in with a purpose.”
After she graduates, Wudi plans on pursuing skeleton full-time in pursuit of her Olympic dream. Although she is training for the 2022 Olympics, she said it is more likely she will qualify for the 2026 games because of the sport’s learning curve.
“I think anything is possible. I mean, she’s one of the hardest-working individuals I’ve ever met, especially coming from somebody that … didn’t do college sports too much,” McGuffie said. “She’s really fast ... she’s tough as nails ... she doesn’t look like that, she looks like she’d be pretty in pink or something.”
Although Wudi’s demanding schedule set her graduation date back, she plans to graduate in December 2019.
“Some of the hardest semesters I’ve had, I was first starting skeleton and trying to balance and just figuring it all out,” Wudi said. “But I've realized if you want something bad enough, you will make it happen.”
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