Luge Training in Lake Placid

Not every Olympic sport is a headline grabber. The dedicated athletes who come to Lake Placid to train in sports like Luge, Biathlon, and Bobsled work hard every day for their one chance every four years to make people stand up and cheer, Another RadXSports video.

Narration: We trek to Lake Placid to watch the Olympic team prep for the 2010 Games in Vancouver...
Tony OnCam - Lake Placid Intro:

It takes a lot of work to compete at the biggest sporting event in the world. More than that, an athlete need a world class training center, which is precisely what American athletes find in Lake Placid, New York.

Tony VO -- Lake Placid

The east coast home to Olympic athletes in training for the winter Olympics is in Lake Placid New York. 28 of the 34 medals won by Americans in 2008 at the Turino games went to athletes who trained here.

One big room in this sprawling house is the high tech ice box where they train for Luge.

Julia Clukey (clue-key) is a medal contender who worked all summer on her start technique. In mid-August she crashed on a training run. Bouncing around like this on the concrete practice track, she tore the meniscus in her right knee. On September 28th Cluekey had arthroscopic surgery to repair the knee. Barely two weeks later she was back in business, winning her third JetBlue Start Competition Championship right here in this Lake Placid facility.

The refrigerator where they practice Luge in warm weather is only one of many adaptations of winter sports to warm temperatures. Ski jumping is done on porcelain tiles and plastic show, freestyle skiing and snowboarding in a pool, the exotic combination of target shooting and Nordic skiing known as biathlon is practiced on wheels. This sport demands mental as well as physical fitness.

Mere mortals can experience a hint of this same exhilaration on an Olympic scale. You can put down your cash for a 40 second run down the bobsled course, feel the G-forces, get turned upside down and understand a little about what the athletes go through. Why would any young person want to devote their life to this wild ride of a sport that seldom captures headlines?

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• action sports
• extreme sports
• winter sports
• Olympic
• luge
• bobsled
• biathlon
• Lake Placid
• travel
• tourism
• outdoor
• recreation
• athletics
• fitness
• training
• Olympic training
• world class
• vlog
• yt:stretch=16:9
• olympics
• speed
• strength
• reactions
• reflexes
• games
• sliding sports
• gold

[akajefe]

One thing that I dislike about the winter Olympics is that many of the events are highly specalized and require expensive equipment and facilities. This is not as much of a problem in the wealthy nations. There are grants an means available to pretty much anyone who is willing to dedicate themselves. Poor nations do not have this luxury. The summer Olympics have many events that require no equipment at all. Not even shoes. I feel that the summer Olympics are a truly world wide event.

[GerryPallor]

@akajefe Well thought out comment. Thank you. It would be cool if you would  Subscribe to our channel and comment on our other videos. The comments and discussions are an important part of the YouTube experience. I'd love to see more on our channel and the individual videos.

[th3thrilld3m0n]

Well, there is one major flaw in this: the landing on jumps. As shown, people practice jumps and land in a pool, this is practiced worldwide. What is currently used in parts of ski/snowboard facilities is an artificial snow that is like a plastic. In Lynchburg, VA, the first ski area in the world has opened that only uses this material. It is outdoor and is open 365 days every year. This is what they need at Olympic training centers so participants can practice not only jump, but landing.

[GerryPallor]

@th3thrilld3m0n I have to go to Lynchburg and check this out.  Thanks for the comment.

[MrEvacuation15]

lake place has evil gators