Questions, Trivia & More from the Community

Folks from across the country and continent (whoop whoop South American friends) have shared some great questions, fun facts and trivia that I want to share with everyone in a new series of posts. Because sharing is caring and I love the enthusiasm from everyone.

Here’s today’s contribution:

How do you become good at luge? – Amy from Oregon

Great question Amy. Watching the event you might think it’s an adult version of sledding, but from the number of crashes we’ve seen, there’s clearly a lot more to it.

Starting at the top, they need tremendous upper body strength to launch themselves out of the starting gate for maximum speed that will set the tone for their entire run. And it’s not just biceps for gym selfies, hand and forearm strength are just as important because their fingers are what is making contact with the ice. They wear gloves with spikes on the fingertips, kind of like what Spiderman’s hands probably look like.

For the run itself, the two important pieces are steering when necessary and remaining as aerodynamic as possible. To steer they use subtle shifts in their upper body and can also flex their calf muscles that are touching the runners on the ice to make small adjustments in direction. To be aerodynamic they need to remain as flat as possible and be very aware of every aspect of their body. Both of these things require a high level of overall fitness and control. A single run down the track can be under a minute but they basically need to be doing a full-body flex the entire time.

And from what my research shows me, the most important qualities of becoming a champion in luge are no fear of crashing, love of adrenaline & thriving on speed. Think Fast & Furious 17: Ice Tracks of Fury.

Jokes aside, that is actually what coaches have said about who they pick at an early age to be part of training programs. As fancy as I tried to make all the above stuff sound, it’s basically just getting into really good shape overall, obtainable by most. But what you can’t force someone to do is love barrelling down an ice tunnel at 87mph in spandex while wearing death gloves.

And for doubles luge, I think it’s all of the above…but preferring a buddy for activities? It definitely seems like a drunk night at the luge track that turned into an ongoing inside joke that escalated into a bet of who could pitch the event as a new Olympic sport without laughing to the old men of the Luge Association and to everyone’s surprise, they said yes.

If you have a question, observation, fun fact or something else I should share, you know where to find me!