Diabolical Track a Nightmare for Lugers
Diabolical Track a Nightmare for Lugers
Published: 2/16/06, 7:06 AM EDT
CESANA, Italy (AP) - Slithering down the mountainside, this beast breaks bones and Olympic dreams. Those who dare challenge it, do so at the risk of limb ... and luge.
The diabolical bobsled track at the Turin Games, with its 19 curves and lightning-fast ice, has overmatched some of the world's best sledders, even sending a few unlucky Olympic lugers to the hospital during the first days of competition.
The spate of crashes prompted one luger to call for the track to be shut down.
"It's not anymore about medals, everyone fights for life," said Italy's Anastasia Oberstolz-Antonova. "It's not sport anymore."
Canadian luger Chris Moffat called it "the hardest track in the world right now."
"It's definitely challenging every athlete," Moffat said. "I would have to say you'd have to be a loony if you weren't scared."
On Wednesday, the U.S. doubles luge team of Mark Grimmette and Brian Martin had their quest for an elusive gold medal end with a crash in turn 14, a spot that has claimed other sleds. And moments after Grimmette and Martin walked away uninjured from their wreck, the Ukranian team of Oleg Zherebetskyy and Roman Yazvinskyy flipped over, and the pair briefly went airborne.
The impact severed the front right runner of their sled, which had to be carried to the finish by a coach. Yazvinskyy was flown by helicopter to a hospital with an unspecified head injury.
Earlier this week, American Samantha Retrosi spent a night in the hospital after sustaining a concussion and cutting her chin when she crashed trying to steer through the difficult bottom section.
While everyone agrees the nearly mile-long track is technically tough, the biggest problem for lugers was a lack of training time on it. Martin said lugers weren't given adequate runs in preparation for the games.
"I think there were a lot of excuses given for the track not being ready on time and it's very unfortunate, but there wasn't the proper amount of training given to all the athletes," he said. "Everybody was trying to make every run count. I don't think it was enough."
This week, there have been other wrecks and more than a few close calls on the serpentine course, which was built in 2005 for the games. Last year, a World Cup events was canceled after several major crashes occurred in testing, including one involving a Brazilian luger who suffered serious head injuries.
For safety concerns, Turin's organizing committee had the track modified.
But even with the changes, the luge competition was somewhat marred by accidents, leading may to wonder if the track is too dangerous.
Not so, says Georg Hackl, a three-time gold medalist considered the sport's all-time best slider.
"It's a race sport and that's always dangerous," Hackl said, moments after Grimmette and Martin wiped out. "But we have strict regulations and only the better drivers are allowed to compete. But even they crash, and that's sad."
U.S. luge, which brought over a young women's team, feared there could be problems because of the track's technical challenges. So on behalf of other nations, it asked the organizing committee for more pre-Olympic time on the track to train.
No, the Americans were told.
"This is no sour grapes. This goes back months," said U.S. luge spokesman Jon Lundin. "This goes back well before the Olympic Games. Our fear was you'd see accidents, you'd see the more skilled athletes having crashes and lesser skilled athletes in a position where they could be hurt.
"We filed and went through the proper channels and were rejected."
Luge race director Marie Luise Rainer rejected complaints that the course was too dangerous, describing it as a "fast track and a technical track" that demands experienced sliders.
"We saw a great race throughout with the men's competition. It was tough for the girls," Rainer said. "There were many girls who were young, without the experience they should have for the games and a track like this."
Hopefully, the crashing won't continue in the skeleton and bobsled competitions. Because luge is a faster sport, steering is more precise and any small mistake can lead to a big problem.
That's what happened to Grimmette and Martin, who struggled during practice and then had their four-year chase of a gold medal - they won bronze in 1998 and silver in 2002 - go up in ice shavings at the nasty turn 14.
"You want to do your best, but that's why we race, to see how well we do," said Martin, who choked back tears afterward. "It's a tough thing to come up on the wrong side of the line, and stop short. But that's what happens some days."
With more sliding ahead, there's a worry that crashes could become the norm and overshadow the games. However, American bobsled driver Todd Hays doesn't expect to have as much trouble on the course as the lugers did.
"We've got a little more weight and we can control the sled a little bit more in the corners," Hays said after a two-man practice run. "You can see the problems they were having. There were some big-time athletes, some big-time sliders that were crashing. There's some very strange pressures on this track."
Austrian brothers Andreas and Wolfgang Linger won the gold in doubles luge Wednesday, the final luge event of the games. The Americans were shut out of medals in all luge events.
Credit BellSOuth
