Sport of the Week – Olympic Luge (Winter)

Sport of the Week – Olympic Luge (Winter) - with John Hartley and Geoff Peterfy 0:00 13:22

Have you ever been sledding? Well, luge is a lot like that, except you’re going down the hill at eighty miles per hour in this little track that will slam you around if you’re not careful. Only the best make it to the Winter Olympics, and well, Germany appears to be the best. John and Geoff go over the history and current state of Luge in the Winter Olympics in this edition of Sport of the Week.

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Raw Notes Below:

Where/When did it start Vikings invented it. Built big old luge sleds back in 800 AD Luge is the French word for Toboggan Introduced into Olympics in 1964, Innsbruck, Austria Biggest difference between luge and skeleton is skeleton goes head first, luge goes feet first 1879: Davos, Switzerland, builds the first luge track. 1883: Switzerland hosts the first international sled race. Reach above 80 mph Manuel Pfister of Austria, reached a top speed of 154 km per hour (95.69 mph) on the track in Whistler, Canada prior to the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Who plays it Since weight is an advantage, male athletes must weigh at least 198 lbs (90 kg), and women must weigh at least 165 lbs (75 kg)

Events – Track length is between 6/10th mile and 9/10th mile Men’s Singles 4 attempts, all times added up after day 2 Women’s Singles 4 attempts, all times added up after day 2 Doubles Could be male/male, male/female, female/female Two runs in one day Team Relay Women’s single, Men’s single, double Woman goes, has to hit a button at the finish line which opens the gate and the man goes, hits to button, doubles go Little flappy guy that hangs down Introduced in 2014

Best Known for the sport Germany – 75 medals (4 versions of their country – Germany, West Germany, East Germany, United Team of Germany) Luge to Germany is really what baseball is to the U.S. in a lot of ways. A good example is they have elementary school championships, Swept Sochi in all 4 categories Italy – 17 total, 7 gold – still mostly ethnic Germans Austria – 19 total, 5 gold …US no gold, but 5 medals

Terms Steels Bridges Runners and bow Spiked gloves delivery boys’ sleds

Fun Facts Performance is timed to one thousandth of a second US Team is sponsored by White Castle No world records, as all tracks are different lengths Finishing without the sled disqualifies you

Most Famous Armin Zöggeler – Italy (2 gold, 1 silver, 3 bronze) [Armeen Zoog uh lair] only athlete to have won one medal in a single individual event in six Olympics (furthermore consecutive). Georg Hackl – Germany (3 gold, 2 silver) [GAY-org In 2002 went to Porsche to make his sled faster (got a silver)

