Word: luge
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...moon. Italians tossed snappy striped mufflers over their shoulders. The Canadians came as red-hooded Santas. Four men from Lebanon, all mustachioed, worked up small smiles. And, after cloaked Moroccans in bright burnooses, a one-man band ambled by: George Tucker, the famed Puerto Rican luger (win some, luge some) from Albany, N.Y. With "brakes on all the way," he breathlessly completed the necessary two qualifying runs, in which no particular times are necessary but survival is required. A chilled crowd, about 55,000 strong, was pleased with Tucker...
...coats, but heartily joined with scattered Americans cheering the U.S. athletes as they waved their stetsons. Significantly, when it came to electing a flag bearer, the U.S. captains of the various sports passed over those who are well publicized, and occasionally well paid, in favor of a dedicated Delaware luge racer named Frank Masley, 23, a second-time Olympian. "Their days may come on the medal stand," says Masley, who had no chance for that, "but this day was ours." He referred to all neglected sports...
...Puerto Rican Winter Olympic team, first in the annals of the country and last to the bottom of the luge run, consists of one well-rounded American named George Tucker, who is particularly well rounded in the seat, where the number of mended holes in his suit suggests that Tucker occasionally arrives at the finish line without his sled...
...have about a 75% completion rate," he says. "That's good for a quarterback. It's not so good for a luge racer." Tucker was born in San Juan, where his father distributed motion pictures for RKO. He lived there five of his 36 years, but spent the larger part around Albany, N.Y., irregularly pursuing a doctorate in physics among other degrees of understanding. Introduced as "George Turkey" by the Yugoslav public address announcer, Tucker muses, "He knows more English than he lets on," and takes off on another practice slide down a jagged icicle that meanders like...
...have to retrieve your sled." In the '60s, before he weighed 210 lbs., when he was a pretty handy 6-ft. 1-in. basketball player, Tucker thought of trying out for the Puerto Rican Olympic basketball team. But dreams, like pounds, like years, slip by faster than luge racers flip from their sleds. Finally last year, he says, "I got the name of the president of the Puerto Rican Olympic Committee out of the New York Times. They sent me a beret. The rest of my opening ceremonies uniform is off the shelf." Now the dream is close enough...