From the USA Luge Team:

USA Luge’s final international racing squad, and eventually its 10-member Olympic team, will begin to take shape with a series of race-offs beginning Wednesday, Oct. 21, in Lake Placid, N.Y. The second race-off on the 20-turn, mile-long Mt. Van Hoevenberg course is slated for Friday, Oct. 23.

Following the two races and the first round of cuts, the race-off series will move out to Park City, Utah, where the team will be pared down again following a November 6 race-off. The final cuts will be made on November 15, during a week of international training in Whistler, Canada.

In the end, USA Luge’s fall 2009 team will feature 15 athletes (four men’s singles, five women’s singles and three doubles teams). These 15 athletes will then use the four World Cup events as qualifiers for the 2010 Olympic team. Athletes who miss making the squad will have the option of training in Lake Placid for the bulk of the remaining fall, winter and spring sliding season.

From the Associated Press:

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. (AP) — Bree Schaaf only picked up bobsledding three years ago. John Daly had never scored such a big win against elite-level racers. John Napier is merely 22 years old.

They might not be up-and-coming anymore. On Thursday, that trio of U.S. sliders may have finally arrived.

Schaaf won the second of four women’s bobsled national team trials races, Daly finished atop the men’s skeleton standings for the day and Napier might have had the most significant result of his young career as a four-man bobsled driver — each putting themselves into position to secure spots on the U.S. World Cup team and have the inside track at berths in the Vancouver Olympics.

It was a day filled with surprises at chilly Mt. Van Hoevenberg, where Day 1 of the national team trials was dominated by veterans. On Day 2, the tables started to turn.
“It’s a huge deal,” Schaaf said. “I woke up this morning, ready to rock. I daydream constantly about the Olympics. It’s been the driving force for this season, the driving force for a while now. I cannot wait until February, and I feel like everything is coming together for that purpose.”
Schaaf was a skeleton racer until 2007, then persuaded coaches to give her a shot at driving a bobsled.
Good move.

Teaming with Michelle Rzepka, Schaaf’s time of 1 minute, 54.74 seconds was the day’s best by 0.22 seconds over Day 1 winners Erin Pac and Elana Meyers. There’s only three sleds in the women’s bobsled trials, competing for two available spots on the World Cup roster, where they’ll be joined by 2006 Olympic silver-medal winning driver Shauna Rohbock.

The standings are complex, with a point system in play and skeleton racers having the chance to throw out their worst race, so nothing will really be decided until the trials end in Park City, Utah on Oct. 24. One thing is certain: Daly, who won Day 2 by 0.04 seconds over another relative surprise in Stokes Aitken, won’t be throwing out his Thursday result.

“Yesterday was a downer,” said Daly, who was seventh in Day 1. “Today was the bounceback. I got luckier.”
Day 1 men’s skeleton winner Eric Bernotas is out of the trials, excused with an injury. He’ll be one of four men going to Whistler for international training in late October and, unless his strained right leg doesn’t heal, will be part of the U.S. roster when World Cup racing begins next month.

Zach Lund was third in men’s skeleton Thursday, still struggling with a sore hamstring.

“I’ve got a few days now to get better,” Lund said.
Napier has had a few years to get better.

He comes from a sliding family; his mother was the race secretary Thursday, charting all the times and placings. He’s been in a sled since he was 8 and is hoping his win in the four-man race — his team was 0.16 seconds ahead of the sled piloted by veteran Todd Hays — is the sign that big things are looming.

“It feels good,” Napier said. “The experience is a plus for me, because it’s only going to get better and stronger and faster. I hope that’s the case. I pray that’s the case.”

The only part of the trials that is starting to look like a runaway is women’s bobsled, where former world champion Noelle Pikus-Pace won for the second straight day, 0.17 seconds ahead of Rebecca Sorensen — who also finished second in Day 1 competition.

Pikus-Pace set a personal-best time of 55.92 seconds in her first of two runs down the Lake Placid course Thursday. Brimming with confidence, she heads home to Utah on Friday, now a huge favorite to win the trials since Park City is her home track.

“I’m bringing some momentum to Park City,” Pikus-Pace said. “I jumped off the sled on my first run and just started screaming, like I had the perfect run. It’s been a long time since I had one of those. So it couldn’t have been a better finish here in Placid.”

From the U.S. Ski Team:

Olympic champion Picabo Street (Park City, UT), who dominated her sport in the 1990s, headlined a group of 15 finalists for consideration to be named to the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame, presented by Allstate. Street, along with Paralympic champions Greg Mannino (Eagle, CO) and Sarah Will (Vail, CO), were named finalists Thursday at a press conference in Chicago, the USA's bid city for the 2016 Olympics.

The public will have a say in the hopeful selection of the U.S. Ski Team athletes. From now through June 16, fans can cast their votes for the 2009 class of the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame online at www.teamusa.org. The inductees will be revealed in early July and will be honored at a black-tie induction ceremony on August 12 at McCormick Place in Chicago. The U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame is the only national sports Hall of Fame that includes fan voting.

=> Read more!

Here are the official statements from VANOC about the test events this weekend. Not surprisingly it's declaring them all a success.

- Whistler Bobsled and Skeleton World Cup
- Cypress Freestyle Skiing World Cup
- Four Continents Figure Skating Championship

WHISTLER – If quick starts truly are the key to bobsledding success, then Bremerton’s Bree Schaaf could be a force to be reckoned with at the 2010 Olympics.

The 29-year-old has only been piloting bobsleds since late 2007, but even she can’t believe how quickly her career his starting.

Schaaf drives USA 3, so expectations weren’t exactly high going into the season. She’s changing that.

She beat the top two U.S. bobsleds to win the national championship last month, and Friday afternoon she made a noisy World Cup debut.

Racing on the track that will host the 2010 Winter Olympics, Schaaf and teammate Emily Azevedo finished sixth, .66 seconds behind winners Shauna Rohbock and Elana Meyers, also of the U.S. Kallie Humphries piloted Canada 2 to second place and USA 2, driven by Erin Pac, was third.

“It's amazing, just unbelievable,” Schaaf said. “I am so excited. Really, I am so excited, which is all I can say because it's all that I feel. This gives me something to work towards next year."

=> Read more!

The women’s skeleton just wrapped up here at Whistler. The verdict: Look out for Germany in 2010.

Germans Shelley Rudman, Anja Huber and Marion Trott swept the race. Katie Uhlaender was the top American. She finished fourth.

Melisa Hollingsworth of Canada looked as if she would win the event after winning the first heat. But pour turn dropped her ninth place.

Michelle Kelly of Canada was upset with her run.

“The good news is we have the home field advantage,” Kelly said. “We have a whole year to train on this track before the Olympics and nobody else has that.”

Noelle Pikus-Pace of Utah finished eighth.

“It’s different than any track I’ve been on,” Pikus-Pace said. “But I like it. The ice is like glass. It’s a good course.”

From the U.S. Bobsled Federation:

PARK CITY, Utah- Men's four-man bobsled team trials continued today on the 2002 Olympic track in conjunction with the America's Cup competition, where the four U.S. sleds entered into the race claimed the top four results out of 11 international sleds. Steven Holcomb (Park City, Utah) and Eric Bernotas (Avondale, Pa.) were victorious in the four-man and men's skeleton events, respectively, while Noelle Pikus-Pace (Orem, Utah) led the U.S. women's skeleton team with a silver medal performance.

=> Read more!

The U.S. Bobsled Team just announced it's World Cup team. No surprises.

USA I: Pilot Steven Holcomb (Park City, Utah) and push athletes Steve Mesler (Calgary, Alberta), Justin Olsen (San Antonio, Texas), and Curt Tomasevicz (Shelby, Neb.).

USA II: Pilot Todd Hays (Del Rio, Texas) and push athletes TJ Burns (Blue Bell, Pa.), Bill Schuffenhauer (Ogden, Utah), and Alex Sprague (Indianapolis, Ind.).

This just in from the U.S. Bobsled Team:

The U.S. Bobsled Push Championships concluded today at the Ice House, an indoor push-start facility, in Calgary, Alberta. Justin Olsen (San Antonio, Texas) and Steve Langton (Melrose, Mass.) claimed the titles for the men’s brakeman and side-push competitions, respectively, while Elana Meyers (Douglasville, Ga.) won the women’s brakeman title. Erin Pac (Farmington, Conn.) claimed gold in the women’s driver competition, and Todd Hays (Del Rio, Texas) claimed the men’s driver crown.

Shauna Rohbock (Orem, Utah), who claimed the 2006 Olympic silver medal with teammate Fleming, finished second with a push time of 5.78 seconds, while skeleton athlete turned bobsled driver, Bree Schaaf (Bremerton, Wash.), placed third with a time of 5.83 seconds.

=> Read more!

From the Vancouver 2010 Organizing Committee:

Vancouver, BC – The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC) today announced that The Whistler Sliding Centre will open its doors for tours this summer, providing the public with the first opportunity to personally touch and feel one of the 2010 Winter Games venues. Located on Blackcomb Mountain in Whistler BC, The Whistler Sliding Centre will be home to bobsleigh, luge and skeleton competitions in 2010. It is one of only 15 international competition sliding tracks in the world, and one of four in North America.

=> Read more!

Just watching a rerun of Saturday Night Live from 2002 (hosted by a pre-rehab Britney Spears)and was amused by Jimmy Fallons Olympic Tribute song for the Salt Lake games.

Here are the lyrics:

The 2002 Winter Olympics are next week,
and the theme song for the olympics is "America" by Neil Diamond
Now, no offence to Neil Diamond but thats songs good
it's only like 20 years old
So I thought I could change the words to some more recent songs
and see if they want to use those instead
You should highlight the events, like downhill skiing

I can go down hill
on the icey snow
dressed up in my unitard
where else can I go?
I'm only a man on two skinny red skis
instead of cologne I'm wearing anti freeze
I can't even tell if I'm winning the race
because snot is frozen on my face
and its not easy to down hill ski

=> Read more!

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