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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Monday, June 2, 2003

Hawai'i teens top prospects in U.S. luging

The Hawai'i athletes making the junior development team for the national luge team are, from left, David Chang, Rachel Kwak and Trevor Wold.

 •  Luge at a glance

By Suzanne Roig
Advertiser East Honolulu Writer

HAWAI'I KAI — Rachel Kwak had never seen snow, and the only ice she had ever encountered was in her freezer.

Rachel Kwak, 13, of Hawai'i Kai, competed in the luge at Lake Placid, N.Y., in February. If Kwak sticks with the sport and continues to do well, she might get a chance to compete in the Winter Olympics in 2010.

Photo courtesy Austin Kwak

Yet there she was last fall, streaking down a stretch of Honolulu asphalt on a glorified skateboard, trying out for a spot on the national junior development luge team. It's the first rung on the ladder to the Olympic games in a sport that requires the athlete to zoom down a three-quarter-mile chute of ice on a sled that reaches speeds of 95 mph.

The Niu Valley seventh-grader figured she was a long shot.

After all, the heroes of luge have never come from the tropics. But more than that, she was competing against thousands of kids nationwide for one of just 12 spots to join the U.S. Luge Association's Junior Development Team.

But Rachel's performance at the Verizon-USA Luge Slider Search clinic at Koko Head District Park and then the real thing — luge runs held at Lake Placid, N.Y., in January and February — was good enough to put her on the team. And tripling everyone's surprise, two other youths from Hawai'i made it, too: Trevor Wold, also of Hawai'i Kai, and David Chang of Kailua, Kona.

"It's very unusual" for three kids from a warm-weather spot like Hawai'i to make the team, said Jon Lundin, U.S. Luge Association spokesman. "We saw thousands of kids from around the country. This is the first time we came to Hawai'i since we have been doing slider searches in the mid-1980s."

These athletes, if they stick with luge, will be looking at possibly becoming Olympic participants in 2010 and beyond, Lundin said.

"These are the athletes' first year of participation in the sport," Lundin said. "They show potential."

Rachel, Trevor and David are now among the 32 members of the Junior Development Team for the U.S. Luge Association, an Olympic-class member organization for the sport of luge. This handpicked team will practice at its own expense during the summer at Lake Placid, and then again in the winter at Park City, Utah. Practice is held two weeks at a time, a total of six times a year, on a training track.

Niu Valley seventh-grader Rachel Kwak swims at the Oahu Club as part of her training.

Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser

The trio's first training session begins June 29. They will get to stay at the Olympic Training Center at Lake Placid, where the U.S. Luge Association will house and feed the athletes.

And all that for kids who barely knew what luge was.

"I tried it and it seemed like a roller coaster," Rachel, 13, said from her Hawai'i Kai home. "Before this, I didn't know what luge was. I was very surprised to be on the junior development team. I didn't think I could make it."

Because luge is not a mainstream sport like soccer or hockey or baseball, the association goes out in search of kids with potential, Lundin said. The 2002 Olympic silver medalist, Brian Martin, was discovered in a slider search in 1987. But unlike places such as Germany where luge tracks dot the landscape, the United States has only two: in Lake Placid and Park City.

David said he had seen the luge event during the last Olympics, and his mom urged him to attend the Koko Head tryout.

The 13-year old Kealakehe Intermediate School eighth-grader didn't expect to get on the team even though he's a swimmer and soccer player and takes his fitness seriously.

While he's not doing anything special to train for luge, he said he's keeping active physically.

"I like swimming and soccer, but I'd rather go luging," David said from his home on the Big Island. "It's more fun. It's fast and you get to meet new people."

The luge association looks for kids with general athletic ability who can be coached, Lundin said. And they must have a daredevil quality, a thrill for speed.

"Luge is a very unique sport," Lundin said. "It's one in which everyone starts on equal footing, men or women. You have to like an element of speed and danger."

Trevor Wold, who likes the luge's "need for speed," is a seventh-grader at Saint Louis School.

Family photo

That's the spark they saw in Trevor, an avid snowboarder and dirt bike rider.

"It's fast," said Trevor, a seventh-grader at Saint Louis School. "It hurts if you crash. This is just the beginning. It's fun. If I do ever get to the Olympics, wouldn't that be really cool?"

Trevor doesn't do many organized sports, but likes to challenge himself physically.

"I like luging," Trevor said. "I like the cold weather part of it. I like the need for speed."

It's a long road between the junior development team and the Olympics. Rachel, David and Trevor are on the first rung of a seven-step program.

Fewer than a dozen of the kids will advance to the next level, Lundin said. Some will stay at the junior development level and others will drop out. If the youngsters advance and continue to show promise, they'll end up doing luge for 11 months of the year, racing, training and studying in Europe as part of the junior national team when they're 15 to 20 years old, he said.

That's the final rung before the senior national and Olympic luge teams.

The multi-year training program is a big commitment — and an expensive proposition — for the kids' families, with travel six times a year from Hawai'i, housing costs for accompanying family members and a sled that costs $250, said Agnes Kwak, Rachel's mother. That's why she is busy crocheting handmade lei that she sells to help offset the costs. And Rachel will work at the O'ahu Club in Hawai'i Kai to earn extra cash this summer.

Rachel, a swimmer, said luge is very different from the breast stroke.

Still, she would trade her goggles for a sled any day.

"I want to do luge," Rachel said. "I'm addicted to it."

Reach Suzanne Roig at sroig@honoluluadvertiser.com or 395-8831.

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