The path was never a straight line.
ABOUT ZACH LUND
Zach Lund spent years chasing an extraordinary goal: becoming an Olympian. Along the way came victories, setbacks, reinvention and the kind of lessons that rarely show up on a podium.
He became one of the world's top skeleton athletes, won the overall World Cup title and represented Team USA at the 2010 Winter Olympics. But the experiences that shaped him most weren't simply about winning. They were about courage, focus, resilience, identity and learning to stay present for the life happening along the way.
THE JOURNEY
A dream. A setback. A second chance.
Zach began competing in skeleton in 2000, drawn to a sport that demands an unusual combination of speed, precision, courage and trust. Over the next several years, he climbed through the international ranks and became one of the top skeleton athletes in the world.
By 2006, the Olympics were within reach. Then, just before the Winter Games in Turin, everything changed.
Zach tested positive for finasteride, a prescription hair-loss medication he had taken for years and disclosed on his medical forms. The substance had recently been added to the prohibited list because it could potentially mask the use of other drugs. Zach maintained that he had never used it for performance enhancement. The Court of Arbitration for Sport agreed that he was not trying to cheat, but upheld a one-year suspension. He missed the 2006 Olympic Games.
It could have been the end of the story.
Instead, Zach returned to competition and had the best season of his career. In 2006–07, he won the overall Skeleton World Cup title, finishing first in the season standings. He went on to earn bronze at the 2007 World Championships and another bronze in the mixed team event in 2008.
Four years after watching his Olympic opportunity disappear, Zach finally became an Olympian. He represented the United States at the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver and finished fifth in the world, just 0.52 seconds from a medal.
The medals and rankings are part of Zach’s story. So is the moment when everything he had worked toward seemed to disappear. Together, those experiences shaped a deeper understanding of courage, focus, identity, resilience and what it means to keep moving forward when life takes a turn you never planned for.