Whistler (pps) Before its beginning on Monday, November 9, 27 nations with 156 luge athletes were registered to participate in the International Training Week for the XXI Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, Canada. The number of actual participants is expected to be even higher.
95 days before the opening ceremony on February 12, 2010, the starting signal is given for the 2009/2010 Olympic season with the beginning of training at the „Whistler Sliding Center“. „I am tremendously looking forward to the fast track in Whistler”, said the two-time World Champion Tatjana Hüfner from Germany. Until November 15, the world’s best luge athletes will have the opportunity to rehearse for the Olympic luge competitions on the world’s fastest artificially refrigerated track. A training restriction will come into effect on December 31, 2009. After this date, only athletes from the host country Canada as well as athletes from “developing nations” will be permitted to train.
„Test, test, test“, is thus the number one item on the agendas of all ambitious teams. „I will again scrutinize the ideal racing line and the right sled configuration for this track”, Tatjana Hüfner, who won the Overall Viessmann World Cup in the past two years, describes her plans for the six training days. Each athlete is entitled to 21 training runs.
