Russell Foster of Mamaroneck holds on tight atop a USA Luge training sled as he shoots down the 5-foot high start ramp before slaloming through cones in Lake Placid as part of USA Luge’s Slider Search national recruitment program in 2016.
(Enterprise file photo — Antonio Olivero)
LAKE PLACID — The White Castle USA Luge Slider Search, using sleds on wheels in the summer and fall to find future national team members and Olympians, will slide into Lake Placid on Saturday.
USA Luge’s primary recruitment event, targeting youth ages 10-13, will be held at the Olympic Sports Complex. Three clinic times will be offered: 9 to 11 a.m., 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2 to 4 p.m. Parking will be available in Lot C, with registration at Mountain Pass Lodge.
The slider search hosts the luge team’s off-season recruitment efforts. The sessions are free, and all participants receive a White Castle USA Luge Slider Search t-shirt.
Lake Placid is one of many stops on the summer and fall recruitment tour across the country. Slider search graduates include Erin Hamlin, 2014 Olympic bronze medalist and four-time World Championship medal winner, who was identified in a 1999 slider search, and Brian Martin, a 1998 Olympic bronze and 2002 Olympic silver medalist, who was discovered at a slider search in 1987. Eight members of USA Luge’s 2010 Olympic team, six athletes from the 2014 U.S. Olympic Luge Team, six sliders from the 2018 Olympic squad and four from the 2022 Beijing team were graduates of the search.
The mission of this grass-roots program, established in 1985, is to identify, train and qualify young athletes for the USA Luge Junior Development Team. Athletes who may progress through the six-rung development ladder (Junior Development Team, Junior Team Candidate Select, Junior Team Candidate, Junior National Team Select, Junior National Team, National Team Select) have hopes of one-day becoming members of the national and Olympic luge teams.
Over the years, the USA Luge Slider Search has traveled over 225,000 miles and introduced the sport of luge to more than 20,000 eager young athletes. At each series stop, guided by U.S. Olympic and national team coaches and athletes, participants are taught the basics of riding a luge sled at controlled speeds, including positioning, steering, and stopping. Once these skills are developed, athletes take several runs down a paved luge course on wheel-equipped luge sleds. Finally, athletes test their physical skills through a battery of fitness tests if time allows. Those who show promise in the summer program are invited to Lake Placid or Park City, Utah to try luge on ice at a USA Luge sanctioned training site. The top young athletes from this group are selected for next year’s development team.
Most of the current U.S. Junior National Team was recruited through the USA Luge Slider Search, so it’s no wonder the coaching staff feels future national and Olympic teams will come from this recruiting program. Register by phone at1-800-USA-LUGE, or online through a secure online site atwww.usaluge.org/try-luge/slider-search.
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Publish date : 2024-08-13 06:26:00
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