|
 |
American luge men to take a shot at gold
By Brady Snyder
Deseret News Olympic specialist
Not only do Americans have a chance to take home two medals Friday in doubles luge, they have a shot at gold.
An American gold would be somewhat amazing since only one of 32 golds ever awarded in Olympic luge competition has gone to a non-German-speaking athlete. The Americans are coming off the 1998 Nagano Games in which its doubles teams won silver and bronze — the first U.S. luge medals.
Three of the four Nagano medalists are back. Mark Grimmette and Brian Martin have been America's best doubles team over the past two years and enter as the reigning Olympic bronze medalists.
Chris Thorpe, who won silver in Nagano with Gordy Sheer, is now teaming with Clay Ives after Sheer's retirement.
While Grimmette and Martin are established and considered one of the favorites, Thorpe and Ives might be peaking at the right moment. At the season ending World Cup in Winterberg, Germany, they won their first-ever World Cup medal, a silver.
Now on American soil at Utah Olympic Park and with new speed suits, the pair is confident.
"Our first run today was pretty sweet," Thorpe said after training Thursday. "We tested a new speed suit, which will definitely help us tomorrow in the race. We're feeling good."
Still, the race is wide open and luge insiders are having trouble making predictions.
Either of the two German sleds have a shot at the podium. Patric Leitner and Alexander Resch are considered the fastest doubles team in the world but sometimes fall apart in big races. Countrymen Steffen Skel and Steffen Woller might be the most feared team in the world, but they don't like the Utah Olympic Park track.
Austrian cousins Tobias and Markus Schiegl are also considered medal possibilities.
The competition is even harder to judge since in training sliders aren't showing their cards and many are purposefully going slow to avoid attention.
"We're feeling good, but everyone is playing games right now," Ives said. "You don't know what people will really do."
Nations are allowed a maximum of two sleds in the Olympics. The team with the best combined time after two runs wins. Competition begins at 9 a.m.
E-mail: bsnyder@desnews.com
|
|
February 15, 2002
|
