U.S. Lugers Find Niche as Boy Scouts

The luge competition in the Winter Games will have special significance for Boy Scout Troop 302 in Marquette, Mich.

Next-door neighbors Wendel Suckow and Chris Thorpe, two of the main U.S. medal hopes, were introduced to the sport on a Troop 302 outing to a small luge track in Marquette, the only U.S. track besides the Olympic layout in Lake Placid, N.Y.

The 26-year-old Suckow (SUE-ko), an Eagle Scout and assistant scoutmaster when time permits, has definitely put the luge manual to work.

After finishing ninth in doubles and 12th in singles at the 1992 Winter Games, he became the first American to win the world championship in the 1993 competition at Calgary. He comes to Norway after a fourth-place finish in the six-race World Cup series.

“I just wanted to make the team in ‘92,” he said. “I definitely feel I can slide with any of these people now. I feel I’m one of the seven or eight (in the world) who can medal on any given day.”

This is the most highly regarded U.S. luge lineup ever, with Suckow and Duncan Kennedy legitimate medal hopes in singles, Thorpe and Gordy Sheer having been in the thick of World Cup doubles competition, and Cammy Myler given an outside shot in the women’s competition despite a series of shoulder injuries.

The United States has never won a luge medal, but Suckow believes he and Kennedy may help lift one another to new heights. They have already, in fact.

“We push each other in training and competition,” he said. “It’s been good for us and the team. We can generally look at each other’s times and tell how the rest of the world is doing.

“Of course, we’re complete opposites aside from our dedication and desire. He’s more aggressive, I’m more passive. I can only slide fast if I control my emotions. It’s 90% mental. When you’re going 90 m.p.h. with your back six inches off the ice, the key is staying calm under pressure.”

Suckow competed in cross-country and track, and toted a tuba in the high school band, but nothing had grabbed his heart, he said, until that Boy Scout outing with Thorpe at the comparative old luge age of 18.

“I fell in love with the speed and reaction,” he said. “I got hooked on the first run.”