UTAH OLYMPIC PARK ? The German women are so dominant at luge, they might receive a stiffer challenge from the teammates they left home then they're getting from the rest of the world at the 2002 Winter Games.
Germans Sylke Otto, Barbara Niedernhuber and Silke Kraushaar are one-two-three after two heats of the four-run women's luge competition. While any of the three could take gold ? they're all within .086 seconds of each other ? it would be miraculous if anyone outside the trio took bronze.
Becky Wilczak, River Forest, Ill. is fourth but she's nearly a half-second behind, which might as well be an eternity in luge ? the fastest Olympic sport and the only event clocked to the thousandth of a second.
In Wednesday night's final two heats Wilczak will be looking for someway to crack the top three and become the first American singles slider to win an Olympic medal.
Wilczak is sliding with her father Tom, who suffers from auto-immune hepatitis, looking on. While the two won't speak until after the Wednesday final ? a superstition they've developed over time ? it's comforting for Becky Wilczak knowing her father is there.
"It means a great deal," she said. "He's supported me for the past 10 years."
Until this season Tom Wilczak hadn't missed an event his daughter had competed in on North American soil. Now it's hard for him to stand up for long periods and last week doctors drained two-and-a-half gallons of fluid from his body.
USA Luge and the Salt Lake Organizing Committee have arranged to have a private jet on hand in case a liver donor is found and Tom Wilczak needs to be hurried back to his Chicago surgeons.
Almost daily, Becky Wilczak calls her father to check on his health. When He and Delle Wilczak, Becky's mother and Tom's wife, are out, the 21-year-old calls their friends looking for them, just making sure.
"He was the dad that took her out of school to play hooky and to the baseball games," Delle Wilczak said.
And regardless of her finish, Tom Wilczak promises to be there Wednesday night when his daughter completes her Olympic dream.
"People talk about will she get a medal. It doesn't matter as long as I'm there to hug her at the end," Tom Wilczak said.
Medals likely aren't going to matter to anyone save the three Germans.
Like every nation Germany is allowed a maximum of three sliders in the Olympics but it might be a better competition if they sent more. Many luge insiders boast that the seven best female sliders in the world hail from Germany .
"Germany's girls are so strong that all the others are happy to get the fourth place," said Austria's Angelika Neuner, who is fifth, battling Wilczak for the highest non-German placing.
E-mail: bsnyder@desnews.com