Its official - 23 year-old Hannah Campbell-Pegg today became only the third Australian ever selected to compete in the Luge at the Winter Olympics.

Campbell-Pegg from Gordon in Sydney overcame enormous odds to earn a spot in her first Olympic team.

The AOC Selection Committee, President John Coates, Vice-President Peter Montgomery and Chef de Mission Ian Chesterman ratified her nomination this afternoon.

Australia’s only other Olympic Luge competitors were Dianne Ogle in 1992 (Albertville, France) and Roger White in 1994 (Lillehammer, Norway).

Luge Australia currently has only six members and because of its lack of size is not officially recognised as a member of the AOC.

However earlier this year the AOC promised Luge athletes would be selected for Torino if they qualified under the rules of the International Luge Federation.

Campbell-Pegg is competing again this weekend but regardless of the result she has amassed enough points on the World Cup circuit this season to earn her place in the Australian Olympic Team.

A former Bobsleigh athlete she switched to Luge just two years ago. Before this season started she had competed in only one world cup Luge event in Germany in January 2005. Along the way she suffered a serious accident in Canada which left her hospitalised with a neck injury.

As a result of that accident her parents urged her to get more practice overseas.

”After the accident we said to her the best thing to do is to get over there and practice” her mother Suzanne said today.”

She’s been training overseas since September”.

Hannah worked up to three jobs to finance her Olympic campaign. She drove advertising billboards around Sydney, did some waitressing and coaching.

AOC