
Luge Yourself - kawera
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/sports/olympics-learning-to-luge/?utm_term=.fba78a08427a
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patall
It always amazes me what kind of things you grow up with nearby can be a live
long dream for other people (Its probably the same for other people with
surfing). As kids, it was just one of the many thing we did, that we were
invited at school by the local club to try this sport with them one day for
free. Sure, it we did not get a suit and we had to carry the sledge our selves
but we won prices in the end and if was generally fun. Well, at least so much
as going down a few times is interesting but from the tenth time on the same
track it would become repetitive and less engaging than building your own
tracks in snow and trying them out, improving etc.

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oh_sigh
Yes. I like to call the winter Olympics the privilege Olympics.

Summer Olympics is running and jumping, throwing sticks or stones, and
wrestling each other

Winter Olympics is zipping down a multi-million dollar luge track

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patall
I would not go that far. With every type of olympics these days, you need to
have money to fully concentrate on the sport (including many years before you
become successful). There may be some sports that require less dedicated
support like running but when a nation like India that has about 1 on 6 people
wins 1 or 2 medals in summer olympics again and again it should become clear
that those games aren't any different.

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Kluny
Can I just say I love this article layout, dead simple minimalist but with
full-width high-quality short gifs? It really feels like the state of the art
settling down to something standard and excellent.

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eeks
Hyperfocus is amazing. I also suffer from anxiety and, if I don't luge, I get
the same experience as the girl in the video on a racetrack with my superbike.
For 20 minutes at a time it's just me and the machine and everything else
disappear. Ironically, the best place for me to get inner peace is on a piece
of metal gushing down the track at 140mph.

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Retr0spectrum
I am curious, what differentiates between competitors at events like the
Olympics? My naive assumption is that the speed you go is largely controlled
by the shape of the track, and gravity.

What does a competitor need to do in order to win, other than stay on the
track?

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ams6110
Not that I have any experience, but I would guess it's mostly in the skill of
negotiating the curves with minimal loss of speed, while not crashing.

