Tim Nardiello attended Lake Placid High School where he played on the hockey team that won the New York State Championship. During his luge career, Nardiello worked as a carpenter, a commercial fisherman, and a water safety instructor. In December 1986, Nardiello and Miro Zajonc became the first American doubles luge team to win an international medal, placing second in a World Cup race. Nardiello later became coach of the US skeleton team, but in 2006, shortly before the Torino Olympics, he was fired. He had been suspended after an accusation of sexually harassing team members, but was reinstated 25 days later when the arbitrator found no evidence to support those claims. But Nardiello was then fired when the US Olympic Committee determined that he had still been coaching the team while he was supposed to have been suspended.