The U.S. luge team’s training was cut short Monday afternoon at the Sanki Sliding Center in Sochi after power went out in the area.
“We didn’t really know what was going on,” said USA Luge Sports Program Director Mark Grimmette, a silver medalist at the 2002 Salt Lake Games, on a conference call with reporters. “I walked up to the finish area and started talking to the event and track manager who said that there was problem with the power in the next town over. We’re currently in the dark right now.”
A media relations representative from USA Luge said that American athletes there -- Erin Hamlin, Julia Clukey, Kate Hansen, Chris Mazdzer and the doubles team of Preston Griffall and Matt Mortensen -- were at their hotel in the dark, playing cards.
“We were about halfway through with our session when the power went completely out,” Grimmette said. “The lights on the track went off, the speakers went off and you could tell that everything was quiet and that all of the power had gone off on the track.”
USA Luge said power went out around 2 p.m. local time, but that it was only at the sliding center in the mountain cluster, not in the coastal city of Sochi itself.
“The team is functioning in candle light in their hotel after they had to abort their training session,” said Sandy Caligiore, the media and public relations director for USA Luge. “They were up on the track for 90 minutes.”
The U.S. is one of 31 nations training in Sochi this week,which includes 140 athletes total. The team is scheduled to be there through Thursday, though USA Luge officials said they believed the athletes would be granted a longer stay or given more runs prior to Sochi. A total of 50 runs were guaranteed to the Americans; they’ve completed 24.
“I’m sure that the FIL (International Luge Federation) is doing everything they can to make sure that everything is fair at the end of the day; they’ll figure it out,” said Gordy Sheer, USA Luge’s marketing director. “At this point, the athletes are more concerned with conserving the batteries on their cell phones.”
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