GREEN BAY (NBC 26) — While Team USA competes on the Olympic stage, a Fox Valley Lutheran graduate is pursuing her own Winter Games dream.
Just months after finishing her college track career at Northern Michigan, Ellyse Wolfrath is learning the sport of skeleton — taking her speed from short sprints and hurdles to the ice.
“Post graduation, you know, finishing up college track is like mid to late May, so I feel like I finished that and I just, I didn't feel quite done yet,” Wolfrath said.
She’s not the first track athlete to make the transition to sliding sports. Team USA’s Kelly Curtis and Mystique Ro, both former track athletes, finished in the top 15 in skeleton at the Olympics over the weekend.
Wolfrath was introduced to skeleton by her former coach, Michael Delleman, Associate Head Coach (Jumps, Hurdles, Multi) at Northern Michigan, who previously competed in the sport himself. He believed her explosive speed made her a natural fit.
“Just your ability to get up to speed and get going in like a 30-meter just dead sprint is one of the big key factors, and that's one of the areas that she really accelerated at,” Delleman said.
But Delleman said it wasn’t just her times that stood out.
“It takes a certain type of person to want to propel yourself face first down an ice chute at 75, 80 miles an hour. And she kind of has that let’s go kind of attitude,” he said.
Wolfrath embraces that mentality.
“I love a little adrenaline, so like I honestly am more excited than, like, you know, nervous about it,” she said.
That adrenaline is now taking her headfirst down an Olympic track in Utah.
Wolfrath said there are similarities between track and skeleton, particularly when it comes to the mental side of competition.
“Hurdling is a very mental sport too, like you're going over hurdles, it has to be very precise, you have to be like very on top of it, like you know you can't let your mind be like wandering to other things,” she said.
Off the ice, Wolfrath balances training with a full-time job as a cardiac nurse in Wisconsin.
“I'll work a full 12-hour shift, and a lot of times I end up here directly after, and if I work the next day, it's like gym, eat, sleep,” she said.
Her schedule includes six days a week in the gym, three 12-hour hospital shifts, and travel across the country to train alongside other Olympic hopefuls.
“I would say a lot of it is the consistency. A lot of times, like I get off a shift and I'm feeling like really tired, you know, like I've had a long day already, but I think then looking back at it, just seeing like the commitment I've had to it, it like, you know, it's encouraging,” Wolfrath said.
For now, Wolfrath said her focus is on continuing to learn and train. But she admits it would be a dream come true to represent Wisconsin on a world stage.
She has also reached out to current women’s skeleton racers — including one who is also a nurse — for advice as she navigates this new journey.
