BEAR HOLLOW — The consensus is in: The luge track at Utah Olympic Park is fast and easy and may need to be toughened up for the 2002 Winter Games.
European luge heavyweights, after only a couple dozen practice runs, swooped into Park City over the weekend and dominated the first World Cup race on American soil in eight years.
American sliders, for their part, did manage three fourth-place finishes, with American women placing three in the top eight. The American doubles team posted two top fives, and American Tony Benshoof finished fourth in the men's competition.
But despite the good U.S. showings, Europeans controlled the course.
"It is an easy track, and we knew that they would learn it quickly. But we hoped it would be more of a home-field advantage," American Ashley Hayden said after finishing eighth.
German women swept the podium Sunday.
Three U.S. women — Becky Wilczak, Courtney Zablocki and Hayden — raced well Saturday and were in the top six. On Sunday, however, they all faltered while the Germans stood their ground or moved up.
Silke Kraushaar established the new track record (43.291 seconds) Saturday and hung on to win Sunday with a combined time of 1:26.800. Sonja Wiedemann was second at 1:27.067, and Sylke Otto moved from ninth on Saturday to third on Sunday with a combined time of 1:27.138.
The American women were a little downcast after the second day.
"I'm happy, but I wish we could've kept our places from the first run," said Wilczak, who finished fourth and moved into 10th place in World Cup rankings. Zablocki finished seventh and maintained the highest American World Cup position at eighth.
The doubles competition, which also finished Sunday, was similarly German-dominated.
Patrick Leitner and Alexander Resch set a new track record (43.138) Saturday and won with a combined time of 1:26.564. German teammates Steffen Skel and Steffen Woller were second at 1:26.702, and Austria's Markus Schiegl and Tobias Schiegl were third at 1:26.861.
Americans Mark Grimmette and Brian Martin were fourth, and Chris Thorpe and Clay Ives placed fifth.
The weekend's events at the future Olympic track marked the first World Cup luge event held in America since 1993. The second will be next week at Lake Placid, N.Y. — the final race of the World Cup season.
The new Lake Placid track is tricky, and Zablocki said Utah's track has been kept easy because the New York run is difficult.
"They wanted to have a hard one and an easy one, I guess," she said.
Zablocki is one of a few American lugers who wouldn't mind if officials made Utah's track more difficult for the Olympics.
"We've discussed it, and the track crew is aware of it, but I don't know if that's something we can do for the Olympics, or if it's something we should do for the Olympics," said American doubles lugist Thorpe, silver medalist in 1998 at Nagano, Japan.
Track workers could alter the ice coming in and out of curves to make turns more testy. The alterations could give the U.S. team an advantage, since Americans can log numerous practice runs while Europeans have a single, weeklong training period before Salt Lake's Winter Games.
During the men's competition, which finished Saturday, some of the world's top men complained about a lack of practice time on the future Olympic track, but after the competition many felt the track could be conquered with little study.
"It's an easy track to drive, and maybe you need 20 runs and you know this track," Austria's Tobias Schiegl said.
Doubles and women's competitors, however, start below curves 2 and 3, which gave male lugers headaches Saturday. Canada's Mike Moffat called the 2-3 combo "the hardest turn in the world right now."
During the weekend, 31 male sliders bested the old track record, with Italy's Armin Zoelleger setting the new mark at 44.590. Zoelleger won the men's competition, Italy's Markus Prock was second and Frenchman Johan Rousseau was third. Twenty-six women bested American Nicole Oliveira's previous track record, and 13 doubles teams beat Americans Pat Anderson and Brian Wohleb's old track best.
E-MAIL: bsnyder@desnews.com