Our Fantasy Campers, Christina Hamm and Bruce Norman, pose with their sleds.

Experience the sport firsthand as you negotiate the world's most exciting course at the Verizon Sports Complex, the same spot where the Winter Olympics were held in Lake Placid in 1980. Coaches Gordy Sheer (1998 Olympic silver medalist, 1997 world cup champion, 1995 and 1996 world championship silver medalist) and Duncan Kennedy (the first American to ever win a World Cup event, three-time Olympian, 1992 and 1994 overall world cup silver medalists) teach fantasy campers the basics of sled control and safety. Each session is captured on videotape and reviewed to further sharpen the skills of the participant.

Camp Details

• Cost: three days for $2,000, including housing at the United States Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid, N.Y. or the USA Luge House located just outside Park City, Utah.
  
• Instruction includes proper start, steering and racing techniques and a strong emphasis is placed on safety.
  
• Campers luge about three hours per day on the outside track.
  
• Instructors also use computerized timing analysis, slow-motion video and force vector meters to improve start techniques.
  
• The camp ends with a final banquet.

Resources

USA Luge Fantasy Camp
800-USA-LUGE (872-5843)
www.usaluge.org

Sliding Camp
Skeleton Fantasy Camp
Lake Placid, N.Y. and Park City, Utah
518-523-1842, ext. 105
www.usbsf.com
Launch head first down an Olympic track, just three inches above the ice, traveling at nearly 60 mph. Elite athletes and coaches teach you how the track is meticulously shaped and maintained, how to enter a banked corner and what the centrifugal force of three G's feels like — all this on a sled that looks like a cafeteria tray! Each camp is limited to 20 participants, who must be at least 18.
Cost: Two days of sliding, $500; helmets, visors, elbow pads, spiked shoes and sleds provided

Luge Olympic website
www.olympic.org

Bobsledding and the Luge
by Larry Dane Brimner