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Luge loses Top stars pull out of competition in Lake Placid
Posted: Saturday February 19, 2000 10:42 AM
LAKE PLACID, New York (AP) -- Call it a bit of luge subterfuge. On a day that promised to be memorable because of the competitors, three of the greatest luge stars in history pulled out of the men's singles Friday in the Winter Goodwill Games. So, what promised to be one of the premier events instead became something of a bust without three-time Olympic champion Georg Hackl and current world champion Jens Mueller, both of Germany, and Austria's Markus Prock. "It's a bit disappointing to see anybody pull out of a race regardless of what their stature is in the sport," said Ron Rossi, director of the U.S. Luge team. "We just wish everyone had competed." The three stars, who were joined by two other sliders, pinned their controversial decisions on safety concerns and the limited amount of training they had on the new track at Mount Van Hoevenberg, which was completed in mid-January and officially opened only a week ago. "I have enough experience and I'm old enough to make a decision on whether or not to participate," said Mueller, 34, who also won gold in the 1988 Calgary Olympics. "We all know that when we sit down on a luge sled, it's not like playing chess. There is risk involved." All three maintained that their decisions were made individually. "Under no circumstances should you take this as an athlete protest," Mueller said. "The three of us sitting here have won many medals. We all made the individual decision not to slide for our own safety because we all have had bad accidents in the past and we wanted to avoid that." Their absence opened the door for new World Cup champion Armin Zoeggeler of Italy, and he easily beat Jaroslav Slavik of Slovakia for the gold. Gerhard Gleirscher of Austria edged Adam Heidt of the United States for the bronze. "I don't feel my colleagues not racing diminishes my win," Zoeggeler said. "I really like the track. It was up to every individual whether to start or not. I decided to do the two runs, and I feel very good about it." The track, which is nearly a mile long and cost $24 million, descends more than 40 stories through 20 curves. And it's no different than any other new facility. "This is traditional. For every new track there are problems," said the 35-year-old Prock, an eight-time World Cup champion. "I'm convinced that changes need to take place for safety." Those changes were mostly ice-related and easily remedied, officials said after a meeting with the athletes. There was no quitting among the German women, and Sylke Otto, current World Cup champion, won gold over Olympic champion Silke Kraushaar. But Otto, who won by nearly a half-second, said there had been some talk of a pullout. "It was discussed, but there was no real consensus on whether to strike like the men," Otto said. "In the end, we decided to do the race, even though conditions were a little difficult." In ice dancing, Oksana Kazakova and Artur Dmitriev rallied to win the gold medal over Mandy Woetzel and Ingo Steuer of Germany. Isabelle Brasseur and Lloyd Eisler, two-time Olympic bronze medalists from Canada, won bronze. The Russians, second to skate, completed a throw triple salchow and a throw double salchow, with Woetzel ending the romantic number on the ice looking up at him. They scored two 10s for artistry and had 9.9s across the board for technique to win with a score of 197.2. "I saw the program and I would have given them the same marks," Steuer said. "It was incredible. After our marks, I said to Mandy, `We lost again, but we lost on a very high level.'" In women's singles, France's Surya Bonaly gained the lead with a mistake-free program that included five triple jumps and her signature backflip. She tied with Yuka Sato of Japan with a score of 98.6, but won on her technical total. Sato dedicated her flawless performance to her partner, Jason Dungjen. They had to drop out of the pairs competition after he fell and broke his right cheekbone while attempting a triple twist in practice Wednesday. "I'm not quite sure how I pulled myself together. It hasn't been very easy," Sato said. "But I really wanted to stand up here for Jason and I. I was very focused, and this performance really made me happy, and that's really important." Oksana Baiul, the 1994 Olympic champion from Ukraine, skated first and was followed by Nancy Kerrigan, runner-up to Baiul at Lillehammer. Coincidentally, each missed a triple lutz, but Baiul edged Kerrigan for third place with a score of 97.3. Skating third, Katarina Witt seemed to steal the show at first. Moving to a slow-paced, seductive song written for her, the two-time Olympic gold medalist from Germany hit a triple toe loop and double axel and left to raucous applause, pausing to kiss the ice where she landed the triple. But the judges gave her a mark of only 96.7, placing her in sixth and eliciting a chorus of boos. Witt shrugged off the disappointing marks. "That was not important to me," she said. "It was just really important that I did the triple toe for myself, just for my own confidence and knowing, hey, I still can do it." Ageless Dorothy Hamill, her infectious smile lighting up the ice, performed a smooth program. Hamill, gold medalist in 1976 at Innsbruck, hit two double jumps and a delayed axel and was fifth. Canada's Elizabeth Manley slipped twice and was seventh at 96.7.
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