To prepare for the Winter Games, a luge world champion comes to San Diego to practice in a local wind tunnel facility.
U.S. Luge Team Conducts Tests For Winter Olympics In San Diego
To prepare for the Winter Games, a luge world champion comes to San Diego to practice in a local wind tunnel facility.
Preparing for the 2014 Winter Olympics, U.S. luge world champion Erin Hamlin came to San Diego to perform tests at the low-speed wind tunnel facility on Pacific Highway.
At the Winter Games, less than a second can determine the winner or loser.
Team coach Mark Grimette said it's like the Indy 500 on ice.
"Luge for a World Cup race is timed to— a tune is 50 to 60 seconds and the track is a mile long," Grimette said. "And the race can come down to one-thousandth of a second."
The U.S. luge team has been using the wind tunnel facility since the 1990s. Team members come once a year to refine their positioning and suits for the Winter Games.
The facility has been around 65 years and is owned by the San Diego Air and Space Museum.
