The University helps put U.S. lugers on the international map

U.S. national luge team member about to take off during the Women's Start at the Olympic trials in Park City, Utah.

by Deane Morrison

From M, winter 2003

Gripping the start handles at the top of the Salt Lake City luge track, White Bear Lake native Tony Benshoof rocks his 50-pound sled back and forth, pumping blood into his muscles. He tries to forget that this is the Olympics, the biggest race of his life, and concentrates on what he learned in training. Before the digital timer hits 00, he catapults from the handles and focuses on paddling--his weak spot--quickly digging his spiked gloves into the ice to get his sled speeding down the track. Then he leans back, his unsupported head inches from the ice, for the quick 75 mph ride. Seconds later, he zips across the finish line in contention for a medal.

Not long ago, the United States was barely a contender in international luge events; now, Benshoof is ranked among the top five lugers in the world, thanks in part to a training system designed by Marge Hartfel and professor Art Erdman of the U's mechanical engineering department. "[This system] is probably the single most beneficial piece of training equipment we have," says Benshoof. The U.S. Olympic Committee and U.S. Luge Association funded the project, and the Olympic Committee's sport science engineers built the system.

Any luger will tell you that while a fast start doesn't guarantee you'll win, a slow one guarantees you'll lose. Hartfel's and Erdman's system electronically measures the force applied to the luge starting handles and an index Hartfel designed compares lugers' speeds before and after paddling. Hartfel supplies this data to coaches, who then work with athletes to improve their weak areas.

To give American lugers its full benefit, the system was kept secret until the 2002 Olympics. Erdman recalls one meet in Lake Placid, when he and Hartfel had to leave their set of wired start handles in place for the foreign teams, lest those teams notice them replacing the handles and get suspicious.

World Cup season is now under way, and Benshoof, fresh from a second-place finish in the men's nationals--a title he has won four times--is still competing and looking forward to the 2006 Olympic games.