USA earns two medals at Junior World Championships

The Junior World Championships have ended, and our team produced some successful results. Kate Hansen took the bronze medal in the Women's Race behind Carina Schwab of Germany and Sandra Gasparini of Italy. The US team of Robby Huerbin, Kate Hansen and Shane Hook/Zac Clark also won bronze in the Team Relay Competition.

Opening Ceremonies

The ceremony took place in front of the "Golden Roof" in Innsbruck's historic Old Town.

Last night all of the teams got on buses at the track and were brought down into the old part of the city in Innsbruck. We did the whole walking in thing and waved our flag and listened to some speeches in German. It was a bit chilly standing outside so we were grateful when we were brought inside for food and some entertainment. It's always fun when all of the countries are together because we don't get the opportunity to talk to everyone very often. While everyone was socializing some traditional dancers come on stage. They did a very traditional Austrian dance which was pretty cool. Then there were some "modern urban dancers" came on. They did some breakdancing that was pretty cool. After all of the dancing was done a guy came on and did tricks on his bike. I guess he was the world champion so it was a pretty big deal. He was really good and he got Summer up on stage and was jumping over her on the bike and stuff it was crazy. He was actually really good. After everything was said and done we all boarded the buses again and went back to our hotel. Junior World Championships have officially started.

Good Luck

Good Luck at Worlds Tomorrow, Hope everyone is feeling better.

Race Schedule for Junior World Championships

A preliminary schedule for the weekend's races was given out at yesterday's meeting.

Thursday, January 28

18:00 Opening Ceremony in Innsbruck

Saturday, January 30

10:00 Junior Men

13:30 Doubles

Sunday, January 31

11:00 Junior Women

14:30 Team Relay Competition

17:00 Award Ceremony, Closing Ceremony, World Championships party with dinner

On the Mend

Treatment included plenty of rest, a diet of soup and bread, and bad-tasting pills.

Overnight and throughout the day most of our team came down with multiple cases of a stomach ailment that causes nauseau and diarrhea. It strikes quickly and seems to be contagious. We have had 9 athletes/coaches fall victim to it in the last 24 hours, but no one has gotten sick since about 4PM this afternoon. And the majority of those who did catch it are now feeling better than they were earlier today.

Curt Wildes, our Athletic Trainer, is taking good care of us. He has separated the healthy and sick athletes, provided nourishing food such as soup, bread and rice, and is administering medicine that is supposed to speed the recovery of the body. I imagine our next challenge will be to rebuild the body and gain back weight after the symptoms have subsided and normal food intake can be resumed.

Half of the team did miss out on training today, but any who are still not well by tomorrow morning (we slide at 8AM), have been given permission to train in the last session of the day.

Luckily, I have been spared the illness so far. But that doesn't mean I escaped completely. When Curt and I were shopping for vitamins this afternoon at a supermarket in Innsbruck, I set off a security alarm as I exited the store. I wasn't allowed to leave until I had removed my pants! It turns out the pair of jeans that I bought last month still had a magnetic tag inside them, causing the alarm to sound every time I passed the sensor.

And Then There Were 3

I'm sitting in the lobby where it is "safe;" with the question of "Where will I sleep Tonight?" Now for why this question has arisen. When the team arrived in Igls on Sunday evening Pete informed us that there has been a nasty flu going around in Igls. In fact 17 of the 21 USA bobsled team athletes caught this 24 hour stomach flu. Some of us where already sick with a cold including myself so the team was already on their guard. So Monday was business as usual.

When we went to bed last night there were 11 sliders. At around 2:30am I awoke to find Emily is not in her bed. I got up to go to the bathroom and ran into... Summer! So I ask, "Where's Emily?" She told me that both she and Emily came down with the flu and have been up all night. The rest of night was rough for them, they finally laid back down into bed around 6 am.

When I woke up in the morning Kate was not feeling well either. I came downstairs to breakfast to tell the coaches and Curtis of Emily's and Summer's condition, to find that Jake had fallen ill in the night as well. By the end of breakfast Kate was full on sick, and Taylor wasn't feeling well. The coaches came up with a plan to move me into the boys room and Jake would then move into my room with the girls. By the time we left for sliding there was only Robby, Aaron, Shane, Zac, and Myself left standing. While sliding Aaron started to feel sick and by the time we back at the hotel, he had fallen ill as well. and then there was 4. By the end of lunch Zac had fallen ill.

So the 3 survivors watch sliding video, and enter the Danger Zone. We are are trying not to fall sick. So every room has somebody infected in it and there is really no room for me, so where i will spend the night tonight is the Problem waiting to be solved.

Luckily, there will be another session for all the people how could not slide this morning due to illness!

Training Times in Igls

As this week's training for Junior Worlds gets underway in Igls, I wanted to inform you of the web link to training times: http://www.rodel-austria.at/rennsport/weltcup/jun-wm2010-training.php The US team is in Group C, which also includes Italy and Canada. The first Team Captains Meeting will be Tuesday night.

Sweeney Wins Bronze in Oberhof

Emily Sweeney (16, Suffolk, CT) won her first medal at the Junior level in the 5th Junior World Cup of the 2009-10 season in Oberhof, Germany. Emily raced in the more challenging Junior category, even though she is still eligible to slide in the younger "Youth A" level. Other Top 10 finishers this weekend were Jake Hyrns and Summer Britcher, both of whom finished sixth-place in the Youth A Men and Youth A Women races. Currently Jake sits in fourth place in overall World Cup points among Youth A Men, and Summer is in third place among Youth A Women.

With just one more Junior World Cup left this season, there is intense competition in overall standings among the Junior Men. With 370 points, Germany's Julian von Schleinitz already has a lock on the top spot, but Robby Huerbin is one of four athletes who are nearly tied for second position. Robby has 252 points, just eight points behind Robert Fischer of Germany, who is currently in the number two position.

Aaron's luge dictionary

When I first started sliding I had no idea about the meaning of the luge language that all the coaches used. For example: “That run you were too early to 11 because you were late coming out of 10 and had too much direction up in to 11." So to understand what "late" and "early" mean, along with some other luge terms, I will now try and explain. I have also attached a curve map to try and give a visual. By the way I am a great artist, so I hope you like it. If you have any other luge terms that you don’t know the meaning of, I will try and explain them to you.

Profile of the curve - the shape of the curve at the entrance.

Entrance - the beginning of the curve, when it starts turning.

Exit- the end of the curve, when it will go into a transition.

Transition- the length of the track in between curves, when the track returns to a horizontal state.

Late - when the sled has missed the beginning of the profile, going deeper in to the belly of the curve.

Early - When the sled hits the very profile of the curve when it first starts to change from its horizontal state.

Middle- in between early and late, in the middle of the track.

Middle left/right- If a line was drawn down the middle of the track from the sliders point of view then middle right is closer to the right wall, and middle left is closer to the left side.

Direction - the angle of the sled in the track when headed toward a curve, either direction up/in to the curve or away.

Cross in- When the sled is headed into a curve from the left or right side of the track pointed at the entrance of the curve.

Peak - the highest point the sled will reach in a curve before it starts to go down.

Loop - when the sled climbs to a peak in part of a curve then drops to a lower high, and depending on the curve it may climb up again. Curve 17 in Lake Placid is a good example of this, the sled will climb up on the entrance and drop in the middle, then it will come back up on the end. If the shades are open one can tell the difference between a smooth even line and a looping line very easily

Hold up - When the slider will steer up in a curve to keep height. (there are no hold ups in Lake Placid)

Steer - when the slider pushes on the kufen, or pulls on the handle.

Head Roll - moving the sliders head on the entrance of the curve to keep the sliders weight down.

Un-weigh - relaxing on the sled to try and gain more height on the entrance of a curve.

Highest- how far the sled is up the curve.

Pre-Steer- steering the way the curve goes before the entrance.

Back in Igls for Junior World Championships

Hello everybody! We arrived in Igls late yesterday afternoon, back to the same hotel we left two weeks ago, the Hotel Eagles-Astoria. Everything looks pretty much the same as we left it, but there are more hotel guests here now than before, most of them skiers, and many of them from France. Most of our rooms this time around are "apartments," so while the same number might be shared by up to five people, we are actually quite comfortable.

Contact info. The telephone number of the reception desk is 011-43-512-377481.

The hotel fax number is 011-43-512-377481-23.

It is possible to dial directly into the rooms, with some exceptions. If you have difficulties, try the reception desk number that I just listed. To dial directly to the athletes' rooms, dial

011-43-512-377481-xxx

37 Taylor, Jake, Andrew, Shane, Zac

213 Kate, Emily, Lea, Summer

308 Miro

311 Curtis

312 Robby, Aaron

The apartment that Pete and Keith are in unfortunately has no telephone line right now. I would suggest calling the front desk and asking for either of us in apartment 313.

Internet. You might remember that we had some difficulties with the wireless internet last time we were here. These were eased somewhat once I purchased a half-dozen LAN cables that provide direct in-room access. The system still sometimes seems to be over-burdened, so that getting online is never completely worry-free. But it is free and in the rooms, a big improvement over last week !!

Oberhof Race Schedule

Today's Races

Wertbau Challenge Cup

Challenge Cup starts today at 10:00.

The athletes who qualified based on points to race in the Challenge Cup are

• Robby Huerbin
• Taylor Morris
• Lea Vanderlinden
• Jake Hyrns/Andrew Sherk

Frischback Junior World Cup

12:30 Doubles Run 1

13:15 Youth A Women Run 1

14:45 Doubles Run 2

15:20 Youth A Women Run 2

16:30 Youth A Men Run 1

17:45 Youth A Men Run 2

~18:30 Awards

Junior Men and Junior Women will race tomorrow.

Wertbau and Frischback are sponsors for these races. Their slogans, advertised around the track, are Einfach lecker! (Simply delicious) and Ihr Wunschfenster (your dream-window). Good bread and solid houses. If that doesn't describe Germany, I don't know what does.

Notes from Oberhof

Once again there is a very large field of athletes participating in the race this weekend: 150 or so, from twenty nations.

We had a "Team Captains' Meeting" last night at which the Oberhof organizers came up with something never before attempted: arbitrarily reducing the number of official training runs from seven to six. We fought back and appear to have succeeded. This morning we took two singles runs, and will take two doubles runs tonight.

All the athletes received gifts from the race organizers, things from the race sponsors like toothpaste and shower gel. One present was very ironic, given this cloudy, foggy, windy location: a big container of sunscreen!

I will try to find some decent photos from last week's race and post them soon.

Oberhof contact info

It has been a very busy 36 hours for us, with the mens races yesterday and the drive north. We rolled into Oberhof just in time to catch the very end of the Senior World Cup here.

Here is what you need to know to reach us here by phone. Dial 011-49-36842-50-14xx
Replace the xx with the following digits:

66 Shane/Zac
67 Robby/Aaron
68 Taylor/Billy
69 Jake/Andrew
70 Kate/Lea
71 Emily/Summer
55 Curt
78 Pete
82 Keith


Our rooms are in the "apartments" of the Panorama Hotel in Oberhof, about 200 yards from the main building. We do not have Internet in our rooms, only in the main hotel for purchase. I will try to get our study halls set up over there so that we have access to the Internet during scheduled study halls.

Trudging on

Today was about as long as they come. From 11AM until 6PM we were at the track, with just a short break for lunch. Yesterday we got only two runs instead of the promised three, so it was made up for today. Our group has 35 sleds, so three runs took a very, very long time to get through. By the time we finished dinner and watching video of today's sliding, it was already 9PM. There are 150 or so sleds in the field for this race, which is as big a number as I can recall. We will have our final two training runs tomorrow, then it's race time!

Königssee race schedule

Friday, January 15

10:00 Team Competition

11:00 Youth A Women, Run 1

12:00 Doubles, Run 1

12:30 Youth A Women, Run 2

13:45 Doubles, Run 2

14:45 Junior Women, Run 1

16:00 Junior Women, Run 2

Awards

Saturday, January 16

09:00 Junior Men, Run 1

10:30 Junior Men, Run 2

11:45 Youth A Men, Run 1

13:00 Youth A Men, Run 2

Awards

snowy day

It has been snowing all day long in Königssee and Berchtesgaden. Not really heavy, just a constant cascade of light powder. This town is so pretty when it snows. Luckily, our training was the first session in the morning, so we didn't have to put up with delays that often seem to occur here. I have not been very active on the blog lately what with jet lag and being a little under the weather for the past week, but will try to resume posting more often. Luckily it is only the staff who seem to be ill; almost all the athletes are fine.

Königssee phone numbers

I corrected the number posted earlier. Here's how to reach us in our rooms at the Alpenhotel Kronprinz in Berchtesgaden, Germany:

dial 011 49 8652 607 xxx (replacing xxx with the following three-digit room number)

101 Kate, Lea

102 Summer, Emily

110 Pete

554 Taylor, Billy

556 Jake, Andrew

560 Curtis

562 Robby, Aaron

564 Shane, Zac

569 Keith

Germany is six hours ahead of the US East Coast.

We had a short trip over the Alps from Igls this morning, and were able to see some of the 4-man bobsled World Cup race here as we arrived. (Congrats to USA teams Steve Holcomb and John Napier for their second and third place finishes!)

Internet is available here, but only for purchase through T-Mobile.

Igls training times

Thanks to Vanessa Hyrns, here's a link to training times for all the nations participating in the International Training Week here in Igls, Austria: http://www.rodel-austria.at/rennsport/weltcup/jun-wm2010-training.php

She already put this on the Discussion Board, but I thought I would feature it a little more prominently here in case anybody missed it. The USA is in Group A along with Austria and Latvia. Well done, Vanessa!

Ongoing Problems with Study Hall

Hello from Austria. I will let you know up front that I am in a foul mood. We arrived here late Sunday evening after a six-hour stay in Munich airport caused mostly by a rental van whose door was inoperative. Cancel that. Caused mostly by Hertz staff in Munich airport who were wholly indifferent to providing decent service.

Nevertheless, we are here. The hotel is nice, the staff friendly and accommodating.

My biggest problem here has been the Internet. In theory there is wireless in the common areas of the hotel, with LAN connections in the rooms. But the first two days of study hall have resulted in frustration. With all the demands for Internet schooling we seem to be overloading the network, so that the network connection often drops off. As an aside, let me go on the record to say that I am not a fan of Internet schooling while traveling in Europe. I much prefer relying on textbooks and written assignments. So far this season I have seen two laptops cease to operate and one power cable fall apart. In Igls I have spent far more of my time trying to resolve network issues than I have assisting anyone with their actual schoolwork. When the Internet does function, more likely than not it is only in the individual rooms, so I am not able to corral our athletes in one place to monitor and assist them. Elsewhere it is either expensive or nonexistent. Or some other problem.

Yesterday I made a trip to Innsbruck to purchase six LAN cables, in the hope that this will lessen the burden on the WiFi. I can tell you that I am not really satisfied yet, because I found myself unable to connect by cable all yesterday evening. I can connect now, but maybe this is because all the athletes are out of the building. We'll see how it goes.

Party in Austria

We are all here in one piece, keith wanted me to post something to ease all of your anxiety

Mobilization

To be a luge team manager requires some sense of logistics. For some reason tomorrow's travel brings military analogies to my mind: the Allied D-Day invasion, perhaps, or Germany's Schlieffen Plan in WW1. But while these were top-secret operations, the general staff at USA Luge is spilling the beans in advance. Here it is, the "Monty Plan":

Tomorrow eight United flights will bring most of our team together in Chicago. At your respective airports of origin, you should check yourself and your luggage all the way to Munich. The free checked bag allowance on United is one piece of luggage, weighing up to 50 pounds (23kg). If you are thinking of checking a second bag, be prepared for a shock: you'll be facing a charge of $50. This is a change from the Fall Trip, when we had a free baggage allowance of two pieces.

We all know that a terrorist incident was narrowly averted on December 25. The TSA's most recent guidance is to allow extra time for check-in and security clearance. There has not been a change to checkpoint security requirements.

From 9:45AM until 4:10PM athletes will be filtering in from as far away as Hartford, Salt Lake City and Dallas. Here's the order of arrival in Chicago, with scheduled arrival times, flight numbers, and arrival gates. (Caution: Gate assignments can and do change often. Flights, however, are always on time.)

09:45......UA895.......Gate C20........................Emily (bring a book!)

12:03......UA7734......Gate B22........................Shane

12:36......UA6096.....Terminal 2, Gate F7B...........Kate, Lea, Taylor

12:49......UA7374.....Terminal 2, Gate E3...........Aaron

13:33......UA575........Gate B11........................Summer, Billy

15:25......UA5910......Terminal 2, Gate F14..........Keith

15:34......UA7375.....Gate C5...........................Jake

15:49......UA577......Gate B5...........................Andrew

Five of the eight flights arrive in Terminal 1, three flights in Terminal 2. From Terminal 2, it is a 10-15 minute walk to our departure gate. I don't think it will be necessary to go through security screening again, unless you have to make a trip to Baggage Claim for some gate-checked carry-ons.

Tomorrow's United Flight 906 to Munich is scheduled to depart from Terminal 1, Concourse C, Gate C10 at 6:18PM CST. Athletes, refer to the map in my prior post to familiarize yourself with your route within the airport.

Eight athletes will be arriving in Chicago before me. I would like all of them to be at our departure gate by 3:30 PM and wait there until I show up. This will allow me to take stock of the situation and give any instructions.

January 2 is one of the busiest travel days of the year, and O'Hare is one of the nation's busiest airports. So if any problems arise with this scenario, there are sure to be plenty of people available and eager to assist. I am trying to look for a silver lining here.

Our arrival in Munich is scheduled for 9:50AM on Sunday. There we will meet Curtis, Zac and Robby, who are arriving on different flights from the group. We will pick up two rental vans at Hertz, and drive south to Igls, Austria.

Our hotel in Igls is the Hotel Eagles-Astoria. Austria is six hours ahead of the US East Coast. Pete, bringing the sleds from Frankfurt, will meet us here. To call the hotel from the USA, dial 011 43 (512) 377-4810. We are supposed to have Internet there, and I will put up a blog post on Sunday evening once we have arrived, to let you know we made it.

Customs procedures, vehicle procurement, and feeding this army always take time, so please don't be concerned if you don't hear from us before Sunday evening in Europe.