Lake Placid (pps) Without Adam Heidt the U.S. Luge Team begins preparing for the 2004-05 international luge-racing season. The two-time Olympian and eight-year veteran of the squad says he is retiring from competitive men’s singles sliding, the U.S. federation (USLA) now told in a press release. “At this point in my life, I’m looking for new challenges and goals,” noted Heidt. “I’ve been fortunate and lucky over the last 15 years, but it’s time now for me to step away and try something else.” The highlight of the 26-year-old’s career came at the 2002 Olympic Winter Games, in Salt Lake City, Utah, when he raced to a fourth-place finish; capturing USA Luge’s highest-ever singles result in Olympic history. “I don’t think that I was ever that relaxed during any other race of my career,” remarked Heidt. “Looking back on it, finishing fourth was just like winning a gold medal, especially going up the finish ramp and seeing my friends and family cheering me on.”
Heidt, who began sliding at 10-years-old after visiting Lake Placid during a family vacation, broke onto the senior World Cup tour in 1996, and won his first international medal, bronze, during a 1998 Series stop in Altenberg, Germany. That medal sparked him to a career-best fourth-place finish in that season’s final overall Viessmann World Cup rankings. “That first podium was such an accomplishment,” remembers Heidt. “To be able to win an international medal is such an amazing feeling, not a lot of people have that opportunity.” Heidt also captured the 2002 Challenge Cup finale bronze medal. Heidt also captured a ninth-place finish in the 1998 Olympic Winter Games and last season, he raced in just one event, the 2004 Verizon U.S. National Championships where he scored a bronze medal result.