Word: luge
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Bonny Warner, 21, a U.S. luge racer, crashed in her third run and skidded agonizingly to the finish. "Until then I was in eighth place," she said proudly, ahead of the two kindly West Germans who had taught her from scratch since she first observed a luge race in 1980. Her left side was scraped raw ("my Olympic souvenir"), but none of her enthusiasm rubbed off. "The Olympics haven't just been all that I hoped, they're more. Maybe the American luge team didn't win any medals, but medals aren't what the Olympics...
...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...
Crashing in the first run of the Olympic trials five weeks ago, slightly denting his right cheek, Masley was required thereafter to slide impeccably, or the best American luge racer would have been left at home. With $600 in parts, Masley built his own sled. "I leave my job [computer drafting] for six months every year," he says, "and save every cent the rest of the time. But it's worth it, an incredible feeling, the wind rushing by. You're doing something. And this is the proudest moment of my life...
...pell-mell training run, he explained each turn of the course and keyed viewers to the danger spots. ABC made sparing and mostly sensible use of its 74 cameras and state-of-the-art electronic whizbangery. Perhaps the best of its effusive yet informative pretaped features followed U.S. Luge Team Alternate Paul Dondaro down the vertiginous course as a tiny camera attached to his body showed how he steered by precise, split-second movements of his head and feet. The much ballyhooed computer graphics, however, added little to a viewer's understanding. At the opening ceremonies, for example...