Publication Date: Wednesday Feb 11, 1998

A slide for gold

A luge doubles run goes by in a blink. There's not much time to enjoy it. Teammates lie on their backs on a tiny sled made of fiberglass and steel, and hurtle themselves down the side of a mountain and through a twisting, icy chute at speeds approaching 75 miles an hour. The ride is over in about 50 seconds. If all goes well. Living in this fast lane is Brian Martin of Palo Alto.

"It's exhilarating," said Martin, a 1992 graduate of Gunn High, "because you're traveling pretty fast. It's an incredible feeling to be stuck to a vertical wall going those speeds."

Martin and his doubles partner, Mark Grimmette of Muskegon, Mich., have been zipping down mountainsides all over the world this season--winning four gold and one silver in six races on the way to becoming the 1997-98 World Cup champs. They have reached the top of their profession by getting to the bottom the fastest.

All this, however, has been a mere warmup for the one event that counts the most--the luge doubles final at the 18th Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.

Martin and Grimmette, the USA's No. 2 doubles team, will be among the favorites for the gold medal when the world's best teams take their two runs down the "Spiral", a $90 million track located on the outskirts of the bustling metropolis of Nagano, an industrial city of 360,000. The Olympic track has been good to the Americans. The two finished fifth in February of 1997 during last season's World Cup circuit, and in December won the pre-Olympic race at the All-Japan Championships.

"It was a small race, not much pressure," Martin recalled of his last trip to Japan. "Not everybody was up for it, but Mark and I were. It was another small step toward making the team."

It also provided a boost of confidence for the Americans, who defeated two-time world champions Tobias and Markus Schiegl of Austria. The gold medal likely will go to one of those two teams when the finals are held Saturday.

Martin realizes that racing in Nagano this weekend will be quite a different story than in December.

"It's going to be totally different," acknowledged Martin, competing in his first Olympics. "I think the one thing that will probably help is that Mark was there in the Olympics in '94 (before Martin and Grimmette became partners in '96). So he has Olympic experience. He can tell me what it's going to be like--prepare me for what's coming up."

On hand to watch her son will be Nancy Martin, who was able to make the trip with the helping hand of the AT&T U.S. Olympic Family Program, which has helped make it possible for 200 U.S. athletes and 800 family members to be together in Nagano. Having his mother on hand will help keep the Games in perspective for Brian.

"Everybody says you won't believe how many people are here," he said. "You won't believe the media. You won't believe the hype. If everybody's saying that, you've got to believe that it's huge. So, you prepare yourself for huge."

A medal for the U.S. duo also would be huge. Since luge became an Olympic sport for the first time at the 1964 Winter Games at Innsbruck, Austria, the USA has failed to win a medal. Martin and Grimmette could be the first.

"There is a little more pressure there," said Martin, "but you've just got to think of it as just one more race, not that I have to win the first luge medal for the United States. I don't think that would help me."

Still, Martin and Grimmette are the world champs and have to be considered a threat for the gold.

"I like the idea that my competition might think that," said Martin, "because that might give me a little more of an advantage if they're worried about me more than themselves."

Martin and Grimmette, who have risen to the top of their sport as quickly as they get down a course, have a solid track record at Olympic sites. In their first race together during the 1996-97 season, the two finished third on the Olympic track in Lillehammer, Norway, site of the '94 Games. Next came their fifth-place finish in Nagano a year ago, and then their win on the '98 Olympic track last December.

While the world's best weren't at the Olympic tuneup race, everyone was on hand when Martin and Grimmette won titles in Germany and Canada. That's two victories in three tries (over the finest luge teams) for a couple of youngsters--Martin is 24 and Grimmette is 27--who have been together since the summer of '96.

"We trained hard over the summer," Martin said. "Obviously, training hard, doing a lot of starts and being in great shape does pay off."

Martin, who has spent the past two summers at a Lake Placid (N.Y.) golf course driving a food-and-beverage cart, used his free time to lift weights, run, play soccer and ride mountain bikes. The benefit of being in shape pays big dividends.

"It helps you with the start," explained Martin, "and it makes you able to be more relaxed on the sled which, in turn, sucks up more bumps and makes you go faster."

And Martin will be going fast this weekend on the 15-turn "Spiral" course, which is unique in that it has two uphill sections--one of which is quite steep.

"Other tracks have them, but not to the same extent," Martin said. "Here, when you're going into Turn 11, you're going downhill at a pretty good angle. And when you come out of Turn 11, you're going uphill at a pretty good angle."

Course knowledge will be a factor in the race for the gold, and Martin is confident that he's well-schooled on the Nagano layout.

"I do feel confident, especially with my sliding here. We've had quite a few good runs. I got to the point last time I was here that I was confident enought that I felt like any little adjustment that needed to be made, I could make it before it became a problem."

There haven't been too many problems for Martin this season, as he pressed on toward achieving his goal of making the Olympic team.

"It was always a dream," he said. "It's definitely been the goal since I realized I was competitive in the luge. And you always want to get to the top."

In the luge, that means getting to the bottom faster than anyone else. 

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