In the November Sports Round Up, it mentioned that I will be going to Austria and Germany to luge. Here is some background to that, as it may interest some people.

In 2011, 2012 and 2013 I did Luge Camp at the Maniototo Ice Rink and Luge. This is a day camp over the first week of the Winter Holidays. About 20 kids between the age of 8 and 18 luge from 10-3, Monday-Friday, with an hour for lunch and a race day on Saturday. In 2014, I decided not to return, as it was getting easy and I was getting bored. This year I remembered about Luge Camp and decided to return. I did Luge camp, and doing well, I was asked to stay for the next week to do Ice Camp. Ice Camp is similar to Luge Camp, but with skating and curling as well as luge. The other kids doing Ice camp were split into two groups with one luging in the morning, the other in the afternoon. I was lucky and got to luge in both groups. (Which is very good, as I’m not very good at skating, and worse at curling.)

On October 31st, my sister, my father and I were going to Thor: Ragnarok, when my father got a phone call from Geoff Balme, the president of the New Zealand Olympic Luge Association (NZOLA). We were waiting in line to get tickets when the phone call ended. Up until this point all I had heard was various ‘yesses’ and ‘we can do that.’ Standing in that line I was told I would be going to Europe for six weeks to luge. Not only that but I’d be doing Artificial (Olympic) Luge. The last time a New Zealand luger did artificial luge was in 2012.

Over the weeks we've had more information as details were sorted. I will be training at the Innsbruck track and the Igls track with one of my coaches from luge/ice camp and the Austrian Youth Development Team for a few weeks. Then it's off to Winterberg in Germany to train with the International Luge Federation (FIL) Youth Development squad. This program includes young lugers from all over the world. I will be the only Luger from New Zealand, and very likely the only luger from the southern hemisphere. From there I will (hopefully) be racing in the fourth, fifth and sixth races in the 2018 Youth Luge World Championships.

While I'm the only luger from New Zealand doing Artificial Luge, I am one of four going to Europe. Jack Leslie, Ben Voice, and Sam Flanagan will all be doing Natural Luge. The difference between Natural and Artificial Luge is in the corners and the sleds. Artificial luge has built up corners, whereas Natural does not. (See pictures). This means in artificial luge you do not need to sit up in the corners whereas in natural you do. Artificial luge uses a much heavier sled, usually around 70kg: natural is only between 10 and 20kg. This, along with not needing to break for the corners, means artificial luge is much faster. On a fast natural track lugers can reach 60 or 70 km/ph, on a fast artificial luge track, lugers will often reach upwards of 150 km/ph. The tracks are all around the same length, with Artificial tracks being 1000-2000m long, and Natural tracks being usually 800-2000m long. The track at Naseby is one of, if not the, shortest in the world as it is only 360m.

One other type of luge is street/summer luge. This is where a luge sled is on wheels, and is on a street or metal curving half pipe. The Queenstown and Rotorua luges are a variation on street luge, although it is more similar to the winter sport of bobsled than luge. The NZOLA is currently fundraising to build a Summer luge beside the winter track at Naseby. It will be a re-construction of the metal track (Cresta Run) that was at Coronet Peak.

After this summer season I will be aiming towards the 2019 World Championships, and the 2020 Youth Olympics. If Emma Cunningham (my nearest competitor in the Naseby Cup circuit) is not busy with Mountain Biking competitions, as she is this year, we will be training for doubles luge. Doubles luge is exactly what it sounds like. Two people on one sled. Very odd, very obscure. The 2020 Lausanne Youth Winter Olympics will be the first winter olympics to have Women's Doubles Luge as a category. Currently, Womens singles, Mens singles, and Men's Doubles are the only categories. There is also a bid, put in by the FIL and various luge groups across the world, to have Natural luge added to the Winter Olympics. It is likely that the bid will be successful in time for the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

So that sums up my story. From an eight year old luge-camp-ee to a New Zealand representative. Along with some information on the sport in general. I hope you found it interesting.