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First Posted: 12/14/2013 PARK CITY, Utah &#8212; His Twitter page reads &#8220;2014 Olympic Hopeful&#8221; under his name.
But that&#8217;s only because he&#8217;s been too busy enjoying the moment to update the page.
Jayson Terdiman is going to the Sochi Olympics, representing the United States as a member of the U.S. Luge team. He will participate in doubles competition with teammate Christian Niccum.
&#8220;I just want to scream at the top of my lungs,&#8221; said Terdiman, a 2007 graduate of Berwick High School, in an interview with USA Luge. &#8220;It&#8217;s everything that I&#8217;ve been working for all these years. It still hasn&#8217;t hit me yet. It&#8217;s a huge, immense amount of pride for me. I&#8217;m very happy representing the red, white and blue.&#8221;
The doubles team was 11th (in 1:28.153) in the World Cup race Friday and in danger of being left off the Olympic team. A top-five finish would have clinched the spot.
But they won the race that mattered most, prevailing in a raceoff over fellow Americans Jake Hyrns and Andrew Sherk to capture the second and final doubles spot allocated to USA Luge for the Olympics.
Hyrns and Sherk, who is from Fort Washington, were disqualified in the Nations Cup qualifier on Thursday night for steels that were too warm, opening the door to the raceoff was necessitated.
&#8220;It was a great raceoff,&#8221; Terdiman said. &#8220;They had two solid runs and they put us down to make us perform and we did.&#8221;
It&#8217;s been a long road for Terdiman and Niccum, as the latter has faced back and Achillies surgeries in recent years. The duo won the raceoff by .23 of a second over the two runs despite Niccum&#8217;s flu-like symptoms that resulted in the loss of eight pounds this week.
But that was overcome by the news between runs that his 1-year-old daughter had taken her first steps.
&#8220;It&#8217;s just great to have a dream of going to the Olympics when I was 6,&#8221; the 35 year old Niccum said. &#8220;It&#8217;s awesome to get another shot at it and working toward the goal. I don&#8217;t know what else I&#8217;d be doing.&#8221;
Sochi will mark Niccum&#8217;s third Olympic trip, while Terdiman will experience the Games for the first time.
&#8220;This is the culmination of 14 years of hard work, plus the last four years working with Christian,&#8221; Terdiman said. &#8220;It&#8217;s learning how to slide and slide fast. We&#8217;re finally doing it. They were consistent times in the raceoff. We haven&#8217;t been consistent at all this year. So it&#8217;s a great step going into the second half coming off a consistent raceoff.&#8221;
His teammate knows Teridman is prepared for the world&#8217;s biggest stage.
&#8220;He&#8217;s ready,&#8221; Niccum said. &#8220;He knows what he needs to do. When we go there and race, it&#8217;s like what we do every time in training and every race. There&#8217;s a lot of hype around the Olympics. We just block it all out and just focus on what we love to do.&#8221;
The excitement felt by Teridman in the accomplishment was palpable.
&#8220;Right now, it hasn&#8217;t really hit me yet,&#8221; Terdiman said. &#8220;Talk to me after the race in Sochi and I&#8217;ll let you know how it feels.&#8221;
NBC Sports Network will televise a two-hour show from Park City on Monday night at 9 p.m., recapping the weekend&#8217;s events there.

Berwick’s Terdiman going to Sochi