Delaney: Hamlin in training
Luge in July?
Well, not exactly but the unseasonably cool temperatures in Lake Placid Tuesday might be favorable for icing down the Mt. Van Hoevenberg track. Temperatures are supposed to be in the 30s early Wednesday morning. Observer-Dispatch photographer Nicole Cvetnic and I are back in Lake Placid to see USA luger Erin Hamlin, and it doesn't feel much warmer than when we were here for the World Championships in February. Yes, and I thought the Utica weather was rough.
Though it's summer, sort of, training goes on for Hamlin. She's been in Lake Placid throughout the offseason. Some of her teammates are also around on a regular basis. Seven months before the 2010 Winter Olympics, 18 of the 19 senior national team members are in a training camp this week.
On Tuesday, Nicole and I watched Hamlin in physical training, sprinting, stretching and doing core work. We also watched her in a free-for-all foul shooting contest and in a fast-paced Swedish floor hockey game called Bandy. Hamlin played soccer in high school at Remsen but she carried her small Bandy stick like she knew what she was doing. Hamlin must have gotten some tips from teammate Bengt Walden, who is Swedish.
Hamlin is the top women's slider in the U.S. and is attracting a lot of attention - paparazzi, as she said - leading up to the February 2010 Olympics in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada outside of Vancouver. A reporter and photographer from USA Today were also on site Tuesday. A crew from NBC Nightly News is coming up Wednesday.
Hamlin, 22, needs a top 5 finish in a fall World Cup series race to lock up on a place on the U.S. team in Vancouver.
On Wednesday, the sliders will be in the weight room and working on starts at an indoor ramp. Starts remain a focal point for Hamlin, who is continuing to work on getting faster and stronger. The start is a key part of a luge run because a slider needs speed at the top to generate more speed later.
"It's free time," said USA coach Miro Zayonc. "You're a tenth faster at the bottom. You can't start from behind."
The start is one area where the German women are strong and it's a reason they have been so dominant in the sport. Before Hamlin's World Championship victory, the Germans had won 99 consecutive international competitions.
Some of Tuesday's workout were non-traditional, for sure, especially Bandy. The team games went a long way toward group bonding and the events gave the athletes a fun way to get in some agility work while using muscles they spend so much time maintaining.
Among the sliders at the training camp was the doubles team of Mark Grimmette and Brian Martin. The highly decorated duo was third at the World Championships earlier this year when Hamlin won her gold medal in the women's singles.
Well, not exactly but the unseasonably cool temperatures in Lake Placid Tuesday might be favorable for icing down the Mt. Van Hoevenberg track. Temperatures are supposed to be in the 30s early Wednesday morning. Observer-Dispatch photographer Nicole Cvetnic and I are back in Lake Placid to see USA luger Erin Hamlin, and it doesn't feel much warmer than when we were here for the World Championships in February. Yes, and I thought the Utica weather was rough.
Though it's summer, sort of, training goes on for Hamlin. She's been in Lake Placid throughout the offseason. Some of her teammates are also around on a regular basis. Seven months before the 2010 Winter Olympics, 18 of the 19 senior national team members are in a training camp this week.
On Tuesday, Nicole and I watched Hamlin in physical training, sprinting, stretching and doing core work. We also watched her in a free-for-all foul shooting contest and in a fast-paced Swedish floor hockey game called Bandy. Hamlin played soccer in high school at Remsen but she carried her small Bandy stick like she knew what she was doing. Hamlin must have gotten some tips from teammate Bengt Walden, who is Swedish.
Hamlin is the top women's slider in the U.S. and is attracting a lot of attention - paparazzi, as she said - leading up to the February 2010 Olympics in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada outside of Vancouver. A reporter and photographer from USA Today were also on site Tuesday. A crew from NBC Nightly News is coming up Wednesday.
Hamlin, 22, needs a top 5 finish in a fall World Cup series race to lock up on a place on the U.S. team in Vancouver.
On Wednesday, the sliders will be in the weight room and working on starts at an indoor ramp. Starts remain a focal point for Hamlin, who is continuing to work on getting faster and stronger. The start is a key part of a luge run because a slider needs speed at the top to generate more speed later.
"It's free time," said USA coach Miro Zayonc. "You're a tenth faster at the bottom. You can't start from behind."
The start is one area where the German women are strong and it's a reason they have been so dominant in the sport. Before Hamlin's World Championship victory, the Germans had won 99 consecutive international competitions.
Some of Tuesday's workout were non-traditional, for sure, especially Bandy. The team games went a long way toward group bonding and the events gave the athletes a fun way to get in some agility work while using muscles they spend so much time maintaining.
Among the sliders at the training camp was the doubles team of Mark Grimmette and Brian Martin. The highly decorated duo was third at the World Championships earlier this year when Hamlin won her gold medal in the women's singles.
posted by Anne Delaney at
4:32 PM
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