SANFORD — Go ahead, if you dare.

Step out into the spotlight in a darkened, steamy gym full of antsy high school athletes and share your life story.

As you do, you might find your mind wandering to a place more centrally located within your comfort zone.

Such as at the top of an Olympic luge run.

At least Julia Clukey can, because she’s done both.

And she can tell you which is more terrifying.

“Probably this,” Clukey said, referring to the crowd that flocked to Memorial Gym to hear her bare her soul as featured speaker at Sanford High’s fall sports night. “But it’s getting easier.”

Easier doesn’t mean easy.

In fact, there is nothing easy about her life.

As a young teen growing up in Augusta, Clukey set her sights on the unlikely (for a Mainer) goal of becoming an Olympic luger.

More than a decade, and several broken bones later, Clukey, 25 realized her dream in February, when she competed for the United States in the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

“It was bigger than I ever imagined it to be,” said Clukey, who finished in 17th spot. “I’d been thinking about it for a long time. Everything about the Olympics is bigger than imagined. The competition. The opening ceremonies. Being with the U.S. team. Just to be in that atmosphere moved me a lot. It was a very heavy moment for me.”

One that was worth the constant, year-round training grind ”“ much of it of the very tedious, dry land variety ”“ that goes with maintaining a spot on the U.S. National Luge team.

Even during the winter, training on the outdoor run, a luger only actually is on her sled for about three minutes a day.

“The running, the weight training,” she said. “There’s nothing you can do in the summer time that’s like luge. But it’s all these little things you have to have.”

All that effort for such a brief ride, with a big rush.

“When I’m sitting at the handles,” she said. “I can feel my heart beating a little bit. Once I turn it on, once I put my (face) shield down, it’s game time. It’s really easy to block out everything.”

Well, almost everything.

After all ”¦

“You’re going 90-plus miles an hour,” Clukey said, “and you don’t have a steering wheel with you. Gravity is just kind of doing its thing. For me it’s a thrill every time. It’s all about hanging on and going for the ride.”

Which is kind of like trying to win over a crowd of  young strangers within a few short moments.

Fortunately for Clukey, whose late father Bob was principal of Carl J. Lamb Middle School in Springvale, she can navigate the teenage mind as adroitly as she can an icy parabola at breakneck speed (without brakes, by the way).

Which is why the Maine Beer and Wine Distributors Assn. is sponsoring Clukey’s tour through a selection of the state’s high schools.

Clukey makes no overt references to underage drinking in her talks.

Instead, she sticks to an upbeat, positive theme of goal setting and making right choices.

“I definitely realize that I’m a role model,” she said. “Kids need someone to look up to. I want to try to influence them. It’s been a great opportunity. I’m really passionate about the message. About decision making.”

Contact Dan Hickling at dhickling@journaltribune.com.