Summary: <p>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.</p> <p>You can find Sport of the Week every single Monday. Subscribe on iTunes or another podcast listening app to keep up with the latest.</p> <p>Raw Notes Below:</p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"> <span style="font-weight: 400;">Where/When did it start</span> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Vikings invented it. Built big old luge sleds back in 800 AD</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Luge is the French word for Toboggan</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Introduced into Olympics in 1964, Innsbruck, Austria</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Biggest difference between luge and skeleton is skeleton goes head first, luge goes feet first</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">1879: Davos, Switzerland, builds the first luge track.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">1883: Switzerland hosts the first international sled race.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Reach above 80 mph</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">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.</span></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"> <span style="font-weight: 400;">Who plays it</span> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"> 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)</span></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"> <span style="font-weight: 400;">Events – Track length is between 6/10th mile and 9/10th mile</span> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"> <span style="font-weight: 400;">Men’s Singles</span> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">4 attempts, all times added up after day 2</span></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"> <span style="font-weight: 400;">Women’s Singles</span> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">4 attempts, all times added up after day 2</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"> </ul> </li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"> <span style="font-weight: 400;">Doubles</span> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Could be male/male, male/female, female/female</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Two runs in one day</span></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"> <span style="font-weight: 400;">Team Relay</span> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Women’s single, Men’s single, double</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"> <span style="font-weight: 400;">Woman goes, has to hit a button at the finish line which opens the gate and the man goes, hits to button, doubles go</span> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Little flappy guy that hangs down</span></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Introduced in 2014</span></li> </ul> </li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"> <span style="font-weight: 400;">Best Known for the sport</span> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"> <span style="font-weight: 400;"> Germany – 75 medals (4 versions of their country – Germany, West Germany, East Germany, United Team of Germany)</span> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"> </ul> </li> </ul> </li> </ul>
