Matt Mortensen says YES to Raluca Duma

Lake Placid (FIL) Two-time US Olympic luge athlete Matthew Mortensen married his girlfriend Raluca Duma recently in the beautiful sunshine of the Lake Placid mountains. Mortensen's doubles partner Jayson Terdiman acted as official and performed the wedding ceremony.

Jayson Terdiman was pleased: “I am happy to have officiated Matt’s and Raluca’s wedding. I got ordained last year for a wedding I am doing next month. Since Matt had to change his wedding plans, due to the Corona pandemic, it just turned out that I was available. It was a great opportunity for me to perform this special wedding ceremony for the first time.”

34-year-old Matt Mortensen had originally planned the wedding differently: “We wanted to get married in Raluca's hometown of Cluj Napoca in Romania and then have a party in the USA for the members of my family. Both events were unfortunately postponed to 2021 due to the pandemic. However, we still wanted to exchange our vows and be legally wed, and we figured Lake Placid was a great place – that is where we met. This is where it all began! Only my family and a few close friends were present. Jayson performed the ceremony and Aidan Kelly (my teammate from the 2014 Olympics in Sochi) took the pictures. It was a great, unforgettable day. We had beautiful weather and everything worked out great.”

Matt Mortensen ended his career in 2018, after the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang. There he finished tenth in the doubles together with Jayson Terdiman and narrowly missed the podium in the team relay with the US quartet in fourth place. Mortensen is a representative of the USOPC Athletes Advisory Board and a veteran of the US Army. 

His wife Raluca Duma grew up in Romania. At the age of 19 she moved to the USA and became a chiropractor. The couple met four years ago when Raluca worked at the Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid.

pictures: Aidan Kelly