Nearly 18 years after he began his quest for an Olympic medal in the sport of luge, Duncan Kennedy has made his last run.
Kennedy, plagued by sudden headaches, the result of a small amount of bleeding from the stem of his brain, retired from the sport Sunday at the suggestion of medical experts."When Dr. (Brad) Stephens invited me to his house for lunch (Saturday), I knew something was up," Kennedy, a three-time Olympian, said of a meeting with the U.S. team physician. "I could tell that he was easing me into the idea that getting on a sled was not a great idea."
Kennedy was felled by bouts of dizziness and nausea in late October and left his teammates during a 10-day training camp in early November at Nagano, Japan, site of the Winter Games in February.
Although he said Wednesday that the nausea had disappeared and he had been cleared by doctors to race again, he was still suffering from the headaches, and that was the deciding factor.
Word of the danger had come from Dr. Michael Edwards, a pediatric neurosurgeon in Sacramento, Calif. Edwards has treated the malady, known as arteriovenous malformation, in the past and said that Kennedy could be in danger if he competed.
"He (Edwards) is concerned because there's been bleeding in the past," Stephens said. "Dr. Edwards feels there's a risk if he slides. He feels that since the symptoms have not disappeared, then there must be something going on. Specialists at Massachusetts General Hospital did tell us that he could continue, but only if the symptoms subsided."
Kennedy had planned to leave today for Calgary, Alberta, for the final World Cup event in the Olympic team selection period. Training begins Tuesday night, and Kennedy was hoping to work his way into the United States lineup on Saturday, when he turns 30.
"I knew that stepping down in Calgary was always a possibility," Kennedy said Sunday. "I assumed I'd be better now, but the way I feel today I can't go down the track.
"I think I needed to be nudged off my sled. We kept hoping that things would turn around, but the decision needed to be made now, and it was made for me."
Kennedy gained international acclaim in 1993 when he saved the life of black teammate Robert Pipkins from a gang of neo-Nazi skinheads in Oberhof, a resort in the former East Germany. Kennedy was severely beaten in the attack.
Kennedy quickly became one of the early stars of America's burgeoning luge program, which has worked its way to the verge of its first Olympic medal.
Kennedy, who won 21 World Cup medals in his career, was the racer that most expected to get that Olympic medal.