WINTER OLYMPICS / NOTEBOOK : Pipkins Conquers the Unknown in Luge

Robert Pipkins, 20, an alternate on the U.S. luge team, was introduced to the sport in the summer of 1988 when his mother, who worked for the NYNEX Corporation in New York, one of the team’s major sponsors, read about a novice training camp at Lake Placid, N.Y., in a company publication.

Recalled Pipkins: “She asked me if I wanted to try, and I said, ‘Sure, great. What’s luge?’ And she said, ‘I don’t know.’ I mean, all we knew is that it was an Olympic sport. We didn’t know if it was Summer or Winter Olympics.”

Pipkins tried it on wheels first and was hooked. He now is a luge nomad in the winter and an architectural engineering major at Drexel University in the spring and summer.

He was also linked to headlines in October when a group of skinheads in Oberhof, Germany, mocked his African-American roots, and luge teammate Duncan Kennedy physically intervened, giving Pipkins time to escape.

Pipkins said he has harbored guilt about not standing up for himself, but Kennedy is quick to absolve him.

“I thought he was going to be killed,” Kennedy reiterated the other day. “He has no reason to feel guilty. There were 12 or 15 of them and they weren’t going to stop with just taunts. Anyone being threatened like Robert was would have gotten out of there.”

Pipkins said he was not letting his life revolve around the incident.

“But sometimes I walk around a corner and wonder if I’m going to bump into one of those jerks,” he said.

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In luge doubles, scheduled here next Friday, communication is conducted in body language, and driving is shared.

“You have to know each other inside out,” said Gordy Sheer, who teamed with Chris Thorpe to finish fourth overall in World Cup competition this season, their best performance in four years as a U.S. team.

Sheer, who as the bottom man can’t see anything but Thorpe, steers with his shoulders. Thorpe uses his feet. Any sudden or unplanned movement during the race significantly affects aerodynamics--and relationships.

“We’ve literally butted heads a few times, but basically there’s total trust,” Sheer said. “We pretty much spend every day of our lives together. I mean, we sometimes get upset like brothers, but if you hold a grudge on the ice, you’re going to end up killing each other.”

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A federal court in Indianapolis has scheduled a hearing Tuesday for a suit filed by bobsled driver Bruce Rosselli. He is charging driver Brian Shimer and the U.S. Skeleton and Bobsled Federation with a conspiracy against him in the Olympic trials and is requesting new trials.

Bobsled competition is scheduled to begin here four days after the hearing, which raises a question as to when new trials could be conducted. Rosselli’s contention has already been rejected in arbitration, a ruling that was upheld by a state court in Chicago.