When you're on the fast track, stay off the brake. Take it from Jen Davidson of Layton. Her rise to success in women's bobsled racing started fast and did nothing but get faster.
The United States Olympic Committee presented its first Team of the Month award to Jean Racine and Davidson, the most successful bobsledders in the history, albeit short, of women's bobsled racing.The two capped off the season on Sunday by winning their eighth consecutive medal, a silver in the World Cup event in Konigssee, Germany.
Racine and Davidson have won five silver and three gold medals in eight races this season. They won five of those medals in January.
They finished second in the season standings by two points to the Swiss Team I of Francoise Burdet and Katarina Sutter.
The team of Jill Bakken, who now lives in Park City, and Meg Henderson, finished seventh in the final race.
Davidson caught the bobsled bug after watching the men's event on TV last February in Nagano. She worked her way through training camps last summer to earn the brakeman seat behind Racine last fall.
ROUGH SLEDDING: Things haven't been running smoothly for the luge team lately. Last week's event in St. Moritz, Switzerland, was loaded with chuckholes.
To start with, the lugers had to follow a weekend of World Cup bobsled racing, which left the track rough and dangerous.
Erin Warren of the U.S., who finished sixth in Nagano, and Robert Fegg of Germany, who was in line for the world title, crashed and suffered head injuries. Both are recovering in a local hospital, but their luge season may be at a premature end.
Because of the crashes and other delays, the track was closed to training to allow for customer-paying bobsled rides. This kept one of the U.S. teams from making the required number of qualifying runs. This eventually led to a cancellation of all luge doubles training.
Teams argued that this track should never have been included on the tour because is was designed for bobsleds and not for luges.
The response from the track manager: Take the race and go elsewhere.
This, of course, is the track that will be host of the 2000 World Championships and is considered a top contender for the 2006 Olympics.
Said Ron Rossi, USA Luge Association, "Our racers, in fact, all racers, cannot be treated in such a cavalier manner that their health is jeopardized. This is no way to conduct any kind of luge event, be it a World Cup, a world championships and certainly not the Olympics."
POOR PERFORMANCE: U.S. lugers, needless to say, did not do well in St. Moritz.
Markus Prock of Austria won the gold just ahead of Armin Zoeggeler of Italy.
The top American was Adam Heidt of Northport, N.Y., in eighth. Tony Benshoff of White Berk Lake, Minn., followed in 24th.
HOME SWEET ICE: The U.S. lugers now return to the more friendly banked turns of the Winter Sports Park in Park City.
The Bell Atlantic National Championships are scheduled next week.
Training will begin on Tuesday with the national event on Saturday.
PACK 'EM IN: According to a report from the USOC, the World Alpine Ski Championships in Vail, Colo., played to the largest American crowd in the history of ski racing.