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Sliding centre sparks excitement

Upperton, Lauscher in Whistler to check out track and community
1431slidingathletes
Can't wait for March The bobsleigh, luge and skeleton teams will get their first crack at the Whistler Sliding Centre track in March, when the track will be homologated. Photo by Bonny Makarewicz.

From mud and raw rebar six months ago, the $100 million sliding centre has emerged on the slopes of Blackcomb this summer. And with the emergence of the track’s form and shape, the athletes who hope to dominate foreign competitors on it in 2010 have started to spring up in Whistler.

Two of those athletes, bobsleigh driver Helen Upperton and luge competitor Regan Lauscher, were in Whistler for a couple of days last week. They were here to get a feel for the track and a feel for the town, where they and their teammates expect to spend a lot of time in the two and a half years leading up to the Olympics.

Last summer Upperton walked the mud where the track was to be built. At that time there were only stakes in the ground to mark the corners where she will be searching for the perfect line that will make her fractions of a second faster than other drivers. On Thursday she got her first glimpse of the actual track.

“It was awesome to see the difference from last year. It’s really exciting for us.

“It looks like it’s going to be a unique and really challenging track,” Upperton said.

She called the track “fast and technical”, with big, flat corners that are very upright.

“It will be interesting to see how the sleds handle them,” Upperton said. “Pierre Lueders (1998 Olympic gold medalist and 2006 Olympic silver medalist) said the same thing.

“I think they’re trying to make it difficult and challenging. Difficult tracks produce the best races; it’s more difficult to be perfect.”

The plan, of course, is that the Canadian bobsleigh, luge and skeleton teams will know the Whistler track inside out by 2010, while most of their competitors will have had only the 2009 World Cup event to become familiar with the course.

“It’s probably the winter sport with the biggest home-field advantage,” Upperton said of the sliding events.

Lauscher was also impressed by the track.

“It took my breath away,” said the Calgary resident who had never been to Whistler prior to last week. “The setting, the views…

“It’s a very challenging looking track. It’s hard to say what I think is the most critical combination of things. Different parts remind me of different tracks.

“What I can tell at this point… it looks like it will definitely be one of the more challenging tracks, and that’s good for the home-field advantage.”

Most of the members of the Canadian bobsleigh, skeleton and luge teams reside in Calgary, where they have access to the track at Canada Olympic Park and a network of support services that includes training, medical care, coaching and administration. But Upperton said a lot of Canadian winter athletes, their families and friends, are trying to line-up accommodation in Whistler so they’ll have a place to live when they come here to train.

“I’m looking at relocating out here,” added Lauscher, “so we’re checking out physiotherapists, training facilities, accommodation.”

In her first day and a half in Whistler she got her bearings and a read on “the vibe of the community.”

“It’s nice to know people in the community, that makes it memorable for us,” Lauscher said.

“Everyone’s really friendly. It’s nice to have that feel of excitement and awareness (about the Olympics).”

Lauscher, who is a six-time Canadian champion and veteran of the 2002 and 2006 Olympics, said excitement about the Olympics is noticeable in Whistler.

“Absolutely. I met some people in a store and the man said, ‘I’m going to tell my daughter I met you.’ They want to help us.

“There’s a large Canadian community behind us, and we’re starting to get the resources, so it’s a good feeling.

“Whenever a Canadian wins a medal it’s a large team effort.”

Upperton, who after four runs over two days at the Torino Games missed a bronze medal by 5/100ths of a second — “an insanely small amount of time” — has also noticed the anticipation building locally.

“Every time I come to Vancouver and Whistler I feel the excitement. I hope it’s starting to spread (across the country),” said Upperton.

“Even being in Whistler Village, we’ll go into shops and start talking to people and they’ll take pictures of us.

“I think Whistler will be phenomenal for us.”

Upperton, who was a track and field athlete specializing in triple jump before being recruited by the bobsleigh team, is back in Calgary for a testing camp this week, which is where she got her start in bobsleigh in 2002. Her fall pre-season schedule includes training on the Olympic tracks at Lake Placid, NY and Park City, Utah before the World Cup season gets underway in December.

The entire Canadian sliding community — bobsleigh, skeleton and luge teams totaling approximately 50 athletes — will return to Whistler in March for up to four weeks of training, when the new track will be homologated by sliding officials.

“The sliding community is pretty close,” said Upperton. “Bob and skeleton travel together while luge is on a different circuit, but the Whistler track is going to bring us all closer together.”