Ann Arborite wins bronze in doubles luge

Street misses record, finishes sixth in Downhill behind German gold medalist

Two years ago, Ann Arbor native Mark Grimmette and Brian Martin had to pay their own way to their first W Cup luge race. And last month, with the Winter Olympics looming, Chris Thorpe broke a bone in his right wrist while training with doubles partner Gordy Sheer.

Talk about being high.

On Friday, both teams won medals - Thorpe and Sheer the silver, and Grimmette and Martin the bronze - to break the United States' 34-year Olympic jinx in the sport.

"I think breaking my hand helped," said the 27-year-old Thorpe, of Marquette. "It distracted us a little bit. We knew we were definitely at a disadvantage, and we started to go up from there."

Some in the crowd seemed to be gasping for air as the last run began Friday with both U.S. teams in medal contention.

"I didn't breathe for an hour," said Ron Rossi, executive director of the U.S. Luge Association. "A lot of people have been working for a long time, some of us 20 years, to get us over the hump."

These four sliders have excelled in the sport like no one else before them in the United States. Sheer and Thorpe became the first team members to win a World Cup title, winning four races to lock up the 1996-97 title. And Grimmette and Martin succeeded them this year with a similar performance.

But they're probably the best-kept sports secrets in the United States.

In Europe, where luge began competitively in 1883, people know that Stefan Krausse and Jan Behrendt of Germany are the most decorated doubles sliders in Olympic history. People know that the gold they won here - by just 22-thousandths of a second over Thorpe and Sheer - was their second.

Sheer can only wish it were the same back home, where not many know that no American had ever medaled in the sport since it began in the Olympics in 1964.

"We're not Alberto Tombas or Michael Jordans here in doubles luge," said Sheer, 26, of Croton, N.Y., who plays drums in a three-piece band when he's away from the track.

"But I hope that it brings some awareness and some publicity to our sport. And maybe we'll get some new, stronger athletes who will see this race on TV, and next time they can one-up us and be one and two, instead of two and three."

Luge doubles, where the big guys - Thorpe and Grimmette - lie on top of the sled and obliterate the small fries - Sheer and Martin - for aerodynamic reasons, is about as close a sport there is.

These four take it one step further - they get along like brothers away from the track, have even lived together and help each other whenever they can.

Whether the sport goes anywhere in the United States is anybody's guess.

Although there's a sparkling new track in Park City, Utah, for the 2002 Winter Games, the one in Lake Placid - the only other refrigerated track in the country - is falling apart and in dire need of a $20 million makeover.

New York Gov. George Pataki has pledged $5 million to rebuild it, and the private sector is expected to come up with half the money, but federal funds have fallen short.

Maybe this sudden Olympic success will change Washington's thinking.

Picabo falls short: Caution cost Picabo Street big time.

Usually fearless, sometimes even reckless, she decided to play it safe last night and missed making U.S. Alpine history by 17-hundredths of a second.

Germany's Katja Seizinger didn't hesitate at all and became the first downhiller to repeat as Olympic champion.

Seizinger, who edged Street to win at the 1994 Lillehammer Games, finished in 1 minute, 28.89 seconds to become the first person to win two Olympic downhills.

Pernilla Wiberg of Sweden won her third Olympic medal by placing second in 1:29.18.

Street, trying to become the first U.S. Alpine skier to win three Olympic medals, was sixth in 1:29.54. Normally an aggressive racer, the 1994 silver medalist in the downhill said she held back on the icy course.

"I just didn't want to risk anything. I don't need to go down again," said Street, who was seeking her second gold medal of these Olympics.

"I tried my hardest to get up there on the podium, but it's not worth risking my health at this point to maybe either get down here and win a medal or hit the fence. I've hit the fence too many times."

02-16-98