Some of the world’s leading women lugers tell Around the Rings the track at the Sanki Sliding Center is testing their abilities to the maximum.
ATR spoke with lugers after the first two runs on Monday. The gold will be decided after the final two runs later today.
The defending Olympic champion, Germany’s Tatjana Huefner, said it was a challenging track.
"You make any little mistakes and you lose time, but it is a safe track," said the German, who lies in silver medal position going into tonight’s session.
The tragic death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili following an accident at the Whistler Sliding Center on the eve of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics led to an investigation by the federation and ensured that safety and security of the athletes competing in luge at Sochi 2014 was its number one priority.
The Sochi track is designed to moderate lugers’ speed. But they still fly down the track at speeds of more than 133 kilometers per hour.
Canada’s Arianne Jones told ATR,"It is very safe."
The 23-year-old said the three training weeks that she has spent in the mountains had prepared her well for Olympic competition.Jones estimated that she’d tackled the course about 30 times during training.
"They [training runs] are in our safety regulations, and it’s really important to the [International Luge Federation]. Athletes have no concerns about it," she told ATR.
She said there was a little bit of ice on corner five, which has caused problems for some of the lugers.
"If you hit it, it pushes you around a bit," she admitted, but added "the track is good. It’s built well, and the ice is built well."
With painted faces and waving flags, the friends, family, and fans of mainly U.S., Canadian, German, and Russian lugers were in party mood up in the spectator stand over the finish line. Fueled by beer, they danced to Daft Punk and other dance tunes and created an atmosphere that athletes said aided their performances.
Huefner, who was in first place before her compatriot clocked a better two-run time, said it was good to have her fan club cheering her along, although she told ATR that there was more of a buzz at Vancouver 2010.
Commenting on the atmosphere, the USA’s fearless 19-year-old luger Summer Britcher said, "They are fantastic.
"Just to know they are supporting me is really helpful and comforting and helps me to relax."
Jones, who said competing at Sochi 2014 was an "amazing experience," hadn’t seen her family for seven weeks because of training "in the little bubble" of luge.She quickly rectified that last night when she was reunited with them after completing her media duties.
The USA and Canada each have three athletes competing in the women’s luge.
Erin Hamlin, currently in third, has the best chance of becoming the first US female luger to medal at an Olympics.
You can be sure the noisy hordes of US and Canada fans will cranking up their support at Sanki this evening.
Written by Mark Bisson.
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