LUGE EXPECTATIONS
Living life in the post- Olympic fast lane has been a challenge for ‘ 2010 legacy baby’ Jenna Spencer, who admits moving up to compete against heavier, more experienced racers has caused some pressure- packed moments on the track. ‘ I need to make this mo
Fresh- faced, fearless and barely into their peach fuzz years, Adam Shippit, Matt Riddle and Reid Watts are three of the legacy kids from the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In fact, when the 15- year- olds swept the podium Thursday in the Youth A division of the first luge Junior World Cup on their “home” track, the Whistler Sliding Centre, the Canadian Luge Association’s media release referred to them as “baby Canucks.”
Along with Nicky Klimchuk- Brown, Nicole Pidperyhora and 18- year- old Jenna Spencer, who two years ago was an encouraging second in the women’s Youth A division on the World Cup circuit, they have learned the art of feet- first sliding on the fastest ice chute in the world.
And now these teenagers from Whistler and Pemberton are looking to parlay that experience into potential spots on future Canadian Olympic teams.
Without an artificial sliding track in this country before the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Canada stumbled along on the fringes of luge. Sherbrooke, Que., native Marie-Claude Doyon learned to slide in the early ’ 80s at the track in Lake Placid, N. Y., met her future husband, German slider Wolfgang Staudinger, on the World circuit in the mid-’ 80s and trained with the powerhouse Germans before finishing seventh at the Calgary Olympics.
From then on, it was almost exclusively Calgary- born and trained sliders who made up the World Cup luge team. But it wasn’t until recently, when the likes of Alex Gough, Sam Edney and the young doubles team of Tristan Walker and Justin Snith, developed under the tutelage of coach Staudinger, that Canada turned into a consistent podium threat.
In 2011, Gough became the first Canadian to win gold in a luge World Cup, snapping a 105- race winning streak by German women. She was a world championship bronze medallist in 2011 and 2013 and was fourth at Sochi. Gough, Edney and Walker/ Snith also combined to finish fourth at Sochi in the debut of the team relay after being consistent podium finishers in that event on the World Cup circuit.
Now, the solid luge development program in Whistler looks like it will pay dividends down the road and inject some B. C. content on the national team.
“The track itself has been critical in the progression of the local kids from B. C. and even the ones from Calgary,” says Walter Corey, the CLA’s high- performance director. “All of them have benefited from being able to access both tracks and the fact they are different style of tracks. Whistler is a fabulous legacy for us.”
Spencer and the others started in the sport through learn- to- slide programs and then came up through programs run by B. C. Luge. There are approximately 40 young sliders associated with B. C. Luge, which has about 60 sleds available.
“It’s not a huge pool here yet, still bigger in Calgary, but they’re developing it for sure,” says Tim Farstad, the association’s executive director. “Hosting a World Cup here, being successful in a World Cup is hopefully going to turn some heads of kids and get them into it.
“It’s very exciting for us in Luge Canada because we can have two provinces pushing each other to be better. It’s going to make luge in Canada much better. And this track prepares them much better for going to Europe.”
Farstad said the association does plan to make a bid to host a Youth A/ Junior world championships at Whistler in the future.
While funding from Own the Podium primarily supports top level athletes in the winter sports, it has allocated $ 140,000 for 2014- 2015 to the CLA’s development system. That means the association will be able to double to eight the number of athletes it can take to Europe for Youth A/ Junior World Cup racing this winter.
Spencer, Shippit, Watts and Klimchuk-Brown have already been preselected for what’s called the NexGen team, along with junior Rachel Klassen and Youth A slider Brooke Apshkrum, both of Calgary.
Two others will be selected based off results from Whistler and a World Cup in Park City, Utah, next weekend, with Whistler’s Riddle, who also teams with next- door neighbour Watts in the doubles, having a good shot at one of those spots.
Shippit, who was 17th and 20th in two Youth A starts last season on tracks in Germany he was seeing for the first time, said his introduction in the sport was basically as “a joke” when he was eight years of age.
“I was always into sports and my mom said, ‘ Here, try this one.’ ”
He instantly fell in love with the thrill of speed and the challenge of figuring out the proper technique in every corner to gain those crucial 10ths of a second.
“You know what you need to do and if you make a mistake how to correct it,” said the Pemberton resident, whose two- run time of one minute, 17.850 seconds was .296 better than Riddle and .336 better than Watts. “It’s kind of problem- solving. That’s really what it’s all about.”
Shippit says he’s had “thousands” of runs on the Whistler track.
“It’s been a solid seven years on this track. It’s been great because it has an aspect of every kind of track. You’ve got to fight for position ... and it really teaches you a lot ... and this is the fastest it gets. The knowledge you get from it is immense.”
“Adam was the top point- getter in our junior selections,” said Farstad. “He’s sliding very well. This track really pushes them to be good athletes and good luge athletes.”
Watts, an avid skier and mountain biker, says he watched some of the first sliders on the track in 2008, took the recruitment camp and “I just fell in love ( with the sport). It was awesome.
“Just the rush of getting to the bottom. I never really liked roller- coasters, but this worked. It was amazing.”
While there were three Norwegians — Lillehammer hosts the 2015 Youth A/ Junior world championships — two Russians, a Slovenian, an American and a slider from the Czech Republic in the Youth A men’s singles, the Canadians benefited from the fact powerhouse Germany just sent juniors to Whistler and no Youth A competitors.
The Youth A division will race a second World Cup today. The Junior competitors had their first race Friday and will compete again on Sunday.
Spencer said the B. C. sliders have benefited from run volume on the demanding Whistler track.
“In Calgary, the track is OK. There are hard parts about it, but it is a pretty simple track. Whistler is just so challenging and I think growing up and building your base of luge, the simple things you need to do are a lot harder in Whistler than in Calgary. You build more skills being on a harder track more often.”
In addition to putting B. C. athletes on the NexGen team, the CLA also promoted B. C. coach Matt McMurray to head coach of the junior program for 2014- 2015.
“It’s a strong program here,” says Farstad. “Matt is our junior national coach now because he’s been doing so well.”