LAKE PLACID, N.Y. – After opening the post-Olympic luge season near Innsbruck, Austria on Nov. 29-30, the second stop on the Viessmann World Cup tour will bring the fastest athletes on ice to Lake Placid on December 5-6.
Training will commence on Tuesday, Dec. 2. Nations Cup qualifying is set for Thursday, December 4, at 6 PM. Doubles and men’s singles will be contested on December 5, with the day starting at 9:55 AM. Women’s singles and the team relay are slated for December 6 at 9:30 AM.
The team relay will celebrate an anniversary of sorts in Lake Placid with the running of the 25th such competition since its inception in 2009-2010.
“We welcome the FIL Viessmann World Cup back to the Olympic Sports Complex at Mount Van Hoevenberg and the two- time Olympic village of Lake Placid,” said Ted Blazer, President and CEO of the New York Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA). “It is enjoyable to see athletes, officials, family and fans back to this legendary track for thrilling competition in luge. Our staff at the track does an amazing job with the facility and combined with our event administrators we look forward to a memorable and exciting event.”
The United States luge team will bring eight Olympians to their home track, led by Sochi Olympic bronze medal winner, 2009 World Champion and six-time Norton National Champion Erin Hamlin of Remsen, N.Y. Hamlin opened her World Cup campaign with a fifth place effort on Nov. 29 in women’s singles, followed by a seventh place result in the new sprint World Cup.
In all, eight Sochi Olympic luge medalists are set to make the trip to Lake Placid, which last hosted a World Cup series in February 2013.
On that frigid weekend nearly two years ago, Vancouver Olympian Julia Clukey of Augusta, Maine, and the U.S. relay team both scored World Cup silver medals and will try to use home ice to their advantage once again. It was a career high-water mark for the Maine luge racer.
“Competing at home is crucial for the U.S. luge team and the sport of luge in our country,” said USA Luge President and CEO Jim Leahy. “It is very important that we display the excitement of luge and the progress of our program to the American audience, both at the track and on television.”
The races will air on Dec. 16 with a two-hour presentation beginning at 7 PM Eastern Time on NBC Sports Network. Carr-Hughes Productions, based in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., is charged with the international television feed from Lake Placid and subsequent cable network program.
Universal Sports will air the races on Dec. 10-11. Check local listings for airtimes.
In addition to Hamlin, Germany’s 2014 gold and silver medalists, Natalie Geisenberger and Tatyana Huefner, respectively, will be in the Lake Placid lineup. Geisenberger captured the first event of the season last Saturday.
After winning Sunday in Igls, Felix Loch, gold medal winner in Vancouver and Sochi, leads the men’s field that will include Chris Mazdzer, of Saranac Lake, N.Y. The two-time U.S. Olympian, also a recent winner of his sixth Norton National Championship, tallied a pair of World Cup silvers last season to propel him to fifth in the overall World Cup men’s singles standings.
Mazdzer will be joined by Sochi teammates Tucker West of Ridgefield, Conn. and Aidan Kelly of West Islip, N.Y. West - 18 years old at the time - was the youngest male to ever qualify in singles for the U.S. Olympic luge team. Taylor Morris of South Jordan, Utah and upcoming junior Riley Stohr of Whitehall, Mich. will get a Nations Cup start to try and qualify for the World Cup.
Sochi silver medalist Albert Demchenko of Russia, a double Olympic medal winner, and 2014 bronze medalist Armin Zoeggeler of Italy have both retired. Zoeggeler departed with six Olympic medals, including two gold medals, in six Games.
In addition to Hamlin and Clukey in the women’s field, 2014 Olympian Summer Britcher of Glen Rock, Pa. is ready to race at home along with 2013 Junior World Champion Emily Sweeney of Suffield, Conn. and rising junior Raychel Germaine of Rosewell, Ga.
Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt, who claimed the World Cup overall title in doubles last January and then went on to win the Olympic gold medal, have stated this preseason that their goal is to keep improving. That’s a direct message to their competition: elevate your game or get passed again.
Austrian brothers Andreas and Wolfgang Linger, after two gold medals and a Sochi silver medal, have left the sport. However, two siblings from Latvia, are back. Andris and Juris Sics picked up their second Olympic bronze last February.
A new U.S. doubles entry is set to do battle as Matt Mortensen of Huntington Station, N.Y. and Jayson Terdiman of Berwick, Pa. became a unit after Sochi. The twosome has shown steady progress since first racing together last March in the Norton seeding series where they finished first and second. They were seventh in the World Cup opener.
Mortensen and Terdiman won the Norton U.S. title earlier this month. They competed in Russia with different teammates.
-- ORDA --
Established in 1982, the New York State Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA) was created by the State of New York to manage the facilities used during the 1980 Olympic Winter Games at Lake Placid. ORDA operates Whiteface, Belleayre and Gore Mountain ski areas; the Olympic Sports Complex at Mt. Van Hoevenberg; the Olympic speed skating oval, Olympic jumping complex and Olympic arena. As host to international and national championships, the Authority has brought millions of athletes, spectator and participants to the region, resulting in significant economic development.
