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Germany's Georg Hackl prepares to race for gold again
By John Kekis
AP Sports Writer
PARK CITY, Utah — Georg Hackl hopped on his new purple Porsche sled Saturday and sent one last message to the field in the luge.
The German ace, who is seeking his fourth straight gold medal in the event, had the fastest time on the final training run. He finished the 17-curve course at Utah Olympic Park in 45.135 seconds, beating American Adam Heidt by eight hundredths of a second.
"I've had to change a lot of things," said Hackl, who could become the first Winter Olympian to win the same event four straight times. "The last run I was satisfied, but the track changes every time. Sometimes a mistake will happen, but I'm very angry when I make a mistake and I do my best not to let it happen a second time."
There have been few mistakes in his Olympic career. Hackl won silver in 1988 at Calgary, then took gold at Albertville, Lillehammer and Nagano.
He remains at a loss to explain his Olympic success.
"I don't know," said Hackl, who consulted with Porsche engineers to build his Olympic sled. "I just try to have the best performance and try to do my very best.
"To win the Olympics, you need a good performance and good talent. But that's not all. You need good luck. Without good luck you can't win this competition."
This time, he will be competing without his father, who died of a heart attack in December, just moments after Hackl won a World Cup race at his home track in Koenigsee.
The U.S. lugers are hoping to contend in singles this year, after the nation won its first luge medals in 1998, capturing silver and bronze in doubles.
Heidt finished the final training run ahead of 10-time World Cup champion Markus Prock of Austria, who has finished second twice to Hackl at the Olympics. And Tony Benshoof, who won a silver medal at the World Cup finale in Winterberg two weeks ago, ripped off the fastest time on a training run Wednesday.
"I know I can do well and I'm really going to focus," said Benshoof, who will be making his Olympic debut. "For sure, that (Winterberg) race gave me some confidence going into the games. It was a super way for me to build up some momentum for this competition."
Hackl's biggest challenge again is expected to come from Prock and Italy's Armin Zoeggeler, a three-time World Cup champion who won silver in Nagano and bronze at Lillehammer.
"There's no getting around that the Hackl-Zoeggeler matchup will be the focus," Benshoof said. "But the field is very deep and shouldn't be forgotten about. Hey, it's a two-day, four-heat race. Anything can happen."
The U.S. sliders also will have a couple of advantages they've never had: many more training trips down the Olympic track than the competition and a hometown crowd of more than 13,000 cheering them on.
Heidt, who slid to a season-high fifth at the Winterberg World Cup, also thinks his experiences at Nagano should help him this time.
"I learned a lot from my first Olympic Games," he said. "Four years ago, there was really nothing that could have prepared me for what I was about to face. This time around, I have a better understanding of what to expect, so that should allow me to better concentrate on what I need to do to be successful."
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February 9, 2002
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