Every athlete knows champions are forged on the hardest days. That truth was clear at the recent FIL Luge World Cup at Mt Van Hoevenberg in Lake Placid. Torrential rain, 60-mph winds, power outages, and debris severely damaged the mile-long sliding track on day two, putting the competition at risk.
Athletes still delivered elite performances, while behind the scenes the track crew mounted a herculean effort to restore the course to international standards, ensuring the World Cup could continue.
It was a powerful display of resilience, teamwork, and championship-level determination — on the ice and beyond.
“I’ve been coming to these events for 15 years, and I’ve seen bad weather a couple times, but this was extreme,” says Matthias Bohmer, the director of sport for the International Luge Federation. “I’m 100 percent impressed with the job that was done on the track. We had every single weather situation possible except a hurricane or tornado. Everyone was on top of things, and how the venue staff and people here managed the situation was just incredible.”
“There’s no machine like a Zamboni to maintain a luge track,” says Gordy Sheer, Olympic luge silver medalist and director of marketing and sponsorship at USA Luge. “The crew is essentially maintaining a mile long ice sculpture. Making it is as smooth as possible in all kinds of weather is an immense challenge.”
The track is fundamentally a steep sheet of ice with 20 curves – more than any other track in the world – winding more than a mile down a mountain. To ensure the ice is always up to world class standards, the track crew sprays it and puts slush in divots and holes before literally shaving it by hand four inches at a time across its entire length.
In some areas, track shades were blown out during Friday’s storm and needed replacement. Elsewhere, signs were ripped out by high winds, trees were down, and debris was scattered. Then came the snow, followed by rapidly dropping temperatures.
This work is grueling even in ideal conditions. Yet the crew is there every day, putting in hard work with expertise and diligence, often working 10 to 15 hours at a stretch, to prepare the track for athletes from around the work to train and compete. In achieving consistently world class ice on the Mt Van Hoevenberg combined track, they play an important role in carrying the legacy of this historic venue.
Impact on Athletes
At this level, sliding athletes travel the world each winter, accustomed to the challenges of different tracks and ever-changing weather. Even so, dramatic shifts like Friday’s wind and rain inevitably affect both preparation and performance. Sudden conditions force last-minute changes to schedules and expectations—and demand rapid adjustments to the highly nuanced tactics that define elite competition. In this case, most of Friday’s races were postponed to Saturday, creating an unexpected 24-hour gap between competition days. And although the crews did a miraculous job bringing the track and ice back to world class level, the temperatures on Saturday were colder, resulting in hard ice that’s faster and more challenging to navigate.
For Marcus Mueller and Ansel Haugsjaa, who won their first career World Cup gold medal on Saturday in the men’s doubles competition, the challenge of hard ice was balanced by their familiarity with the track and their appreciation of being “home” in Lake Placid. “It’s so awesome,” said Mueller. “We moved out here a few years ago, and it definitely feels like home now. Today, the ice is very hard, but it goes back to how many years we’ve been sliding here and the comfort level of being on this track. We know there’s going to be mistakes, but it comes down to knowing how to deal with them.”
Haugsjaa adds, “That feeling of home is really a big thing. You’re sleeping in your own bed and you’re showing up to the same start house that you’ve been coming to since you were 12 or 13, so just feels comfortable. It’s nice to put down a couple of good runs here and win the race.”
Women’s doubles Sophia Kirkby and Chevonne Forgan had a similar experience being on their home track. “The temperatures and hard ice are what we’re used to here in Lake Placid,” said Forgan. “This is like most of our training. We did have some trouble in the first run, and we’re really happy to have cleaned it up for the second run. We’re always pushing, always chasing that goal. It’s the best thing to be on the podium here with Sophia in front of our families. It’s an incredibly wonderful feeling.”
With the Winter Olympic Games just weeks away, athletes from around the world are racing not only for World Cup medals, but for their place on Olympic teams. At Mt. Van Hoevenberg, the track crews rose to the moment—working through the night to overcome extreme conditions and ensure every athlete had the chance to chase their Olympic dream.