Luge World Cup 2019 Innsbruck
Today I had the chance to watch this competition and I can say it was a nice one. I wasn't very familiar with the sport, I've seen a couple events but that's all. Today on the other hand I've been able to learn a lot about it.
For those of you who are not familiar with the sport, let me quote the definition given by Wikipedia.
A luge is a small one- or two-person sled on which one sleds supine (face up) and feet-first. A luger steers by using their calf muscles to flex the sled's runners or by exerting opposite shoulder pressure to the seat. Racing sleds weigh 21–25 kg (46–55 lb) for singles and 25–30 kg (55–66 lb) for doubles. Luge is also the name of an Olympic sport. source
It is scary if you're watching it in TV as at that speed (140 km/h (87 mph)) one wrong move can catapult you into God knows where and you can hurt yourself hard or can even lose your life. There were fatal accidents in the past but I don't want to focus on that now. The athlete basically is on his back and can't see much and has to drive without his hands or legs. It's a unique sport, maybe bobsled and skeleton is similar till some point but I can't be sure of how much. Skeleton may be even more dangerous as you go head first and if something goes wrong, you hit your head.
During the race I was trying to figure out how are they doing it and also try to understand the basics. I came to the conclusion that I need to watch more to be able to recognize every move and every mistake.
The most interesting thing I've seen today was the team relay. Relay races we usually know happen in a certain way, I mean the athlete has to make contact in some way with the first one before taking over but here that is impossible. Then how is it done you may as. There's a touchpad that is used to take care of that.
The competition starts with the women's singles sled. At the finish, she hits an overhead touchpad, which opens the start gate for the men's singles sled. Once he finishes and hits the overhead touchpad, the doubles sled makes the final run down the course. source
I've never seen this before but I find it very interesting and hard as well as time is of the essence. Today there were a few who made some mistakes and lost important seconds therefore the medal went to another team.
Practice is essential here and equipment as well. I remember a few years ago I was watching the winter Olympics and the commentator was saying Germany has spent a fortune on researching the best material to make the luge of so the lugers can have the best results.
Today were 32 teams participating and all of them were representing countries with snowy winters. One may say it's easy for them as they have good conditions, lugers can practice at home but that's not always the case. I remember last time I was watching, there were athletes who could not practice as there was no money for that. The country they were representing did not have tracks and sent them unprepared completely.
It's an interesting sport, I'm sure I'm going to watch it every time I have the occasion.