The sport Luge first popped up as sledding, or as many referred to it, “tobogganing”. In the early days, Luge was reserved for rich people on vacation in the Alps. While people were tobogganing all over the world, experts generally agree that the birthplace of modern luge is St. Moritz, Switzerland. The sport really took off when St. Moritz built their first track in the winter of 1884-1885. This track is known as the Cresta run, and today it is one of the world’s leading luge training facilities. In the early days, lugers would ride wooden sleds with wooden runners–tracks on the bottom of the sled. But soon they upgraded, implementing metal tracks, carbon frames, and full on speed suits. However, after this new technology was established lugers found that their snow tracks were deteriorating too quickly. In response, they covered the tracks in water, turning them entirely into ice. This meant that the tracks were much faster and much more consistent. The last great innovation in the luge world was doubles’ luge: two people riding on the same sled, permitting them to achieve more weight and thus more speed.

Luge is now one of the most thrilling winter sports. With modern technology and equipment, these speedster athletes can reach up to 90 mph 

while laying on their back and navigating sharp twists and turns. Germany dominates the olympic scene, with Italy and Austria close behind, making these countries the best places to train for aspiring lugers. With the Winter Olympics this year, it will be exciting to watch the battle of the titans, with Italy having the home turf advantage but Germany having that raw talent. When the olympics aren’t happening there are the luge world championships, with the most recent one being held in Whistler, Canada. They have mens, womens, doubles and team relay lugeing. The last winner of the world cha

mpionships, and the individual luger you want to keep track of in Italy this year, is Max Langenhan from Germany, who is making a huge splash in the scene with his technical flair. People often compare modern luge to the vast spectacles shown in the ancient roman Colosseum.

The culmination of luge, however, isn’t even on the ice. It’s on the road. Street luge is the rawest, most dange

rous form of luge. Lugers ride sleds with wheels on the bottom and ride down fast mountain roads reaching speeds of up to 100mph, hitting jumps along the way. Safety is completely disregarded, and the closest thing to a safety measure is the occasional hay bale to stop a crash from turning fatal. Street luge started out in southern California, but the best tr

acks in the world are in the United Kingdom.

We believe Luge has the potential to be one of the biggest sports in the world. Unconventional sports, such as pickleball, have seen a massive increase in popularity over the past couple of years. If luge can become more mainstream, with more indoor courses and affordable boards becoming available to the masses, it can reach the heights that no other sport has seen before. Over the next twenty years it won’t be out of the norm for babies fresh out of the womb to hop on a street luge, and for Grandpa to compete in world class luge events all over the world.

Seth Norton and Beckham Gerstner are up and coming lugers from Timpview high school. They are hard at work on their very own street luge and they plan to blaze a trail for an all new form of luging–doubles’ street luge. If you ever see two blurs overtake your car on a hill don’t be concerned, it’s just a couple of aspiring lugers.