Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 15, 1994 TAG: 9402150302
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: HUNDERFOSSEN, NORWAY LENGTH: Medium
He lost one Monday because he took it all the way to the edge, then fell over and crashed.
All things considered, he's happier this time.
But barely.
"When you come here to get the gold and you don't ..." He then lapsed into an understandable bit of profanity.
Kennedy, 26, a disappointing 10th at the 1992 Albertville Games, was on the verge of winning the United States' first Olympic medal in luge when he bumped a wall at about 90 mph, spinned out of control, flipped over and crashed.
At that speed, the friction of his rubberized speed suit against the ice shredded the fabric, but he was uninjured save for the loss of the medal.
Kennedy was fourth after the first two runs of the four-run event Sunday, .178 seconds behind third-place Armin Zoggeler of Italy. Following race leader Georg Hackl, the eventual gold medalist, who lowered the Hunderfossen track-record to 50.166 seconds on his third run, Kennedy charged down the ice chute at only .04 seconds off the pace.
But coming out of Turn 13 on the 16-turn course, Kennedy's sled seemed to get wobbly and light on its steels.
"The exit of 13 is one of the most difficult parts of the course," Kennedy said. "Coming out, I was carrying a lot of pressure."
Which is luge-speak for the way sledders can use the centrifugal force generated by a turn to accelerate their projectiles down the next straightaway. But Turn 13 spit out Kennedy's sled faster than he had ever traveled on that section of the track.
"He was really smoking, that's for sure," said Dmitry Feld, an assistant coach and former luger.
And on ice tempered by minus-11 degree weather, the steels lost their edge grip for steering.
"The sled broke away a little bit," Feld said. "It looked like he picked up his head to see where he was going, and he lost control."
The slight lifting of the head might have been the critical mistake that kept Kennedy from regaining control. Lying on their backs, lugers steer not only by pressing their ankles against the upturned tips of the steels, but also with the pressure of their shoulders on the rear of the sled.
The slightest shift in body position can upset the delicate balance that is the difference between speed and disaster.
"When you're riding the edge and cross the line a little bit, you're going to pay the price," said Kennedy, who was disqualified after his spill, finishing in a tie for last.
Kennedy had vowed after Albertville not to return to an Olympics with the take-it-easy approach he had in France.
"I was going for it," he said. "That was my goal for this race, to go for it.
"My attitude going into this was to really attack. In a way, I do feel better this time than in Albertville. But my goal was a medal."
That was the goal for Hackl, too, and the 27-year-old became the first men's luger to win golds in back-to-back Olympics, once again nipping silver medalist Markus Prock of Austria, this time by .013 seconds. Zoggeler won the bronze.
Hackl's cumulative four-run time was 3 minutes, 21.571 seconds.
Wendell Suckow, 26, of Marquette, Mich., who edged Hackl for the 1993 World Cup title, made up ground and moved from ninth Sunday to an overall fifth, tying Cammy Myler's finish in Albertville as the best by a U.S. luger in the Olympics. Suckow's time was 3:22.424.
"It's obvious my starts are not there," Suckow said. "I'm going to go back this summer and work real hard to improve them. My starts are where I lost the race."
U.S. teammate Robert Pipkins, 20, who was saved by Kennedy from a race-motivated attack by Skinheads in Germany last fall, finished 16th in 3:24.580.
"My goal coming in was to have four perfect runs," said Pipkins, who is from Staten Island, N.Y. "Two were good and the others were just OK."
\ DUNCAN KENNEDY\ U.S. LUGER
OLYMPIC DISAPPOINTMENT 1992: A favorite to win the United States' first luge medal, Kennedy played it conservative and finished only 10th, although it was still a men's luge record.
WHY MONDAY SHOULD HAVE BEEN HIS DAY: Third-place Armin Zoggeler of Italy brushed the wall on his first run, leaving a bronze medal open for Kennedy, who entered the competition Monday in fourth.
WHAT HAPPENED MONDAY: Only .004 seconds off the track-record in Hunderfossen, Norway, Kennedy was traveling nearly 90 mph between the 13th and 14th turns of the 15-turn course when he crashed and was sent sliding down the track separated from his luge (left) and his hopes of an Olympic medal. Kennedy failed to complete his first run and finished tied for last.
by CNB