Olympics-Luge-Triple challenge of turn four could decide medals in three sports

By Mitch Phillips

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy, Feb 5 (Reuters) – Turn four of the new Cortina Olympic sliding track – named Labirinti (labyrinths) and consisting of three high-speed, back to back curves – has already been identified as the crucial part of the course for luge, skeleton and bobsleigh.

Athletes in all three sports have had runs on the track this week, with the male lugers the first to post official practice times on Wednesday.

American luger Jonathan Gustafson explained the difficulties. “Each track has one or two spots that are out to get you a little bit and I would say turn four is probably one of them for us,” he said after his first two training runs.

“It’s about how each athlete deals with the flow of the track, how well positioned they are and how well they can adapt to g-forces.

“You know pretty quickly when you’ve got things right or wrong and there are definitely levels to wrong and right.

“If you come out skidding and hitting a wall obviously that’s going to be the mistake, but as we get closer to the race, it’ll be a little more fine-tuned.”

Austria’s Wolfgang Kindl, who has hopes of a medal in three luge races, was among the fastest on Wednesday’s runs and had the same feeling.

“Curve four, curve 11, it’s hard to be fast and accurate and I had some problems today with the set-up,” he told Reuters.

“It’s really hard to have a really straight line out, but that’s going to be the key for the races for sure.”

Germany’s luge world champion Julia Taubitz was also quick to identify “Labirinti” after her first taste of the course in November.

“Turn four is a crucial point for us, where you have to hit it just right,” she said. “The curve rhythm is very nice, and since the ice construction was very good, there were hardly any bumps.

“We always compare it a bit to a bathtub. If you have a good rhythm, you can let the sled dance down the track. Then it’s really fun.”

Compatriot Merle Fraebel came to a similar conclusion.

“At first glance, I liked the track, but then I didn’t like it so much,” she said. “Turn four gave me trouble at the beginning, and the first few runs were a bit bumpy. But then I got the hang of it relatively quickly.

“You have to steer, and that’s something we’re good at in Germany. We have a lot of tracks where you have to steer properly.”

The same challenges will apply in skeleton and bobsleigh when they take to the track next week.

“I’d say corner four is the one, it’s just built really differently and a lot of races will be won or lost at the top,” said Britain’s skeleton double world champion Matt Weston.

“It’s just really hard to be stable out of it and it’s quite a flat part of the track as well. So if you’re skidding, the back of our runners are almost like an ice hockey blade and that’s braking you. But if you get it right, you’ll accelerate way faster.

“You can feel immediately if you’re cutting slightly. Some people will look at my runs and think ‘that looks pretty smooth’ but I’ll know, I felt my sled skidding a bit.

“You can feel more than you can see sometimes but, if it looks like I’m lying there doing nothing, it means I’m doing everything at the right times and the right intensity.”

(Reporting by Mitch Phillips, editing by Ken Ferris)