RUMFORD — Julia Clukey, an Olympian luger from Augusta, kicked off Read Across America Week at Rumford Elementary School on Wednesday by bringing her turquoise blue luge and reading to the more than 250 children.

Clukey, 26, was a competitor in the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. She is going to Lake Placid, N.Y., to continue training for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

When she visits secondary schools, she often speaks about making good choices and setting goals, she said.

At Rumford elementary during a morning assembly, Principal Anne Chamberlin said Clukey’s message was “anything is possible.” She has been working for years to compete in the Olympics.

After the assembly, she chose winter-related books to read in nearly all of the school’s classrooms.

Children also had a chance to see, and sometimes sit in, Clukey’s luge, and see how it worked.