At the young age of 19, Garon Thorne has seen more of the world than most people do in a lifetime. And he's seen most of it lying flat on his back flying down a hill of ice.
Thorne has spent the majority of the last seven years on the luge racing circuit, a sport which has taken him across the world with a different location on his docket every weekend from November to March. He has consistently been a force to be reckoned with on the Junior World Cup circuit.
Now, the Orem native has moved up in the ranks, becoming one of the youngest competitors on the Senior World Cup.
"It's nice for us just to come out and say we're for real," Thorne said. "The transition has been pretty nice."
Thorne has teamed with Matthew Mortensen, a 20-year-old from Huntington Station, N.Y., to form one of the most talented doubles luge teams on the circuit. In the pair's first race on the senior tour in mid-November, Thorne and Mortensen slid to an eighth-place finish in Italy. In the World Cup event in Park City two weeks ago, they finished ninth. Not bad for a couple of first-timers.
"I think we really opened some eyes of the other people," Thorne said. "I think it's really fun for us because it shows our potential. They think, 'They're nothing to worry about,' and then we were only a couple hundredths (of a second) off."
In a sport where hundredths of a second can mean the difference between first and fifteenth place, every little bit counts. Thorne has generally been able to shave off those precious milliseconds, as evidenced by his track record on the sled.
After entering the sport when he was just 12-years old, Thorne quickly became a notable name in luge racing. He first learned about the sport through the Verizon USA Luge Slider Search, and he engaged in a "try-out" of sorts when he was sent down a hill on a training sled, hitting speeds of up to 30 mph.
"If you looked natural and comfortable on a sled, they'd invite you to camp," Thorne said. "They don't want someone who's afraid to go fast."
The word "fast" has taken on a whole new meaning for the Timpanogos High graduate, as he now races at speeds exceeding 80 mph.
After teaming up with Mortensen five years ago, the two enjoyed a meteoric rise to the top of the Junior World Cup standings. Thorne and Mortensen were two-time overall Junior World Cup silver medalists, in 2003 and 2004. The duo also won the Verizon U.S. Junior National Championships in 2003, and they finished third in the same race in the 2005-06 season.
Due to their successes at the junior level, Thorne and Mortensen graduated to the senior circuit, where they would race against multiple-Olympic teams and multiple World Cup medal winners.
"He (Thorne) told me it's been a hard transition," said Gary Thorne, Garon's father. "This is an older group, and he's racing against the 30-year olds. The guys he's barely behind are three-time Olympic medallists. He's the new guy on the block and they think a little differently than he does."
Rather than backing down, however, Thorne is using his competitor's experience as a form of motivation. To him, the fact that he and Mortensen are racing at such a high level, at such a young age, is encouraging.
After the young pair's first run in Torino last month, they were ranked just behind the doubles team that took home the gold from Salt Lake in 2002. As they waited in line to start the final run, Thorne took a look at the teams behind him. Rather than seeing their normal nemesis, the German Junior team, they were now looking at some of the best sliders in the world.
"My partner (Mortensen) bumped me and said "You've got to take this all in now. This is the real deal.'" Thorne said. "I was more excited than intimidated."
Intimidation is one emotion that Thorne cannot afford to feel as he continues on his world travels. Because he spends six to seven months of the year away from home either training or racing, the demands on his time and commitment are tremendous. Thorne said he keeps in contact with family and friends as much as he can, going through his fair share of phone cards and e-mail usage.
The financial side of his endeavors on the ice has been lightened somewhat lately, as the Senior National team foots the bill on travel and hotel expenses. However, no athlete on the World Cup is paid directly for their efforts. In addition to the money, time commitments make luge more than a sport for Thorne. Rather, it's become a lifestyle.
"The commitment has been astronomically hard," Gary Thorne said. "He's our last kid. If he had been anywhere else in our family lineup, it wouldn't have happened."
Notwithstanding the inherent difficulties that come with taking on such an enormous commitment, Thorne says the thrill of racing and the uniqueness of his sport more than compensate for any loss of time or money.
"It's tough, but the competition is so much fun," Thorne said. "I'd like people to know how interesting and technical luge really is— it's like a world you can't escape."