No Concerns About Russian Athletes at Luge Championships

(ATR) Athletes competing at the 2017 Luge World Championships tell Around the Rings they have seen no evidence to doubt integrity of Russian athletes competing at the event.

ATR spoke with members of the United States luge team on the eve of the upcoming championships in Igls, Austria. Both Chris Mazdzer and Sochi bronze medalist Erin Hamlin said that unless evidence comes out from the World Anti-Doping Agency, no evidence shows Russian lugers were compromised.

Mazdzer said no athletes competing in luge had been named in the report, so the only thing left to do was compete and wait for more information.

"That’s currently where we stand," Mazdzer said. "If anything comes from WADA later that is possible, but Luge is one of the only [sports where] there are no named athletes. As of right now we have to wait for WADA to provide more information."

Racing in Igls will be held from Jan. 27-29 after which riders will travel to Altenberg, Germany for a World Cup stop before heading to PyeongChang. Lugers will have a World Cup event in PyeongChang but it will also serve as the first chance for many riders to compete on the course ahead of the 2018 Olympics.

Last October, select riders had the chance to test out the PyeongChang sliding center for homologation. Mazdzer was one of the riders who made the trip, but says next month’s event will be a "learning experience" for everyone as it will be held around the same time as the 2018 Games.

"This is timed…so conditions will hopefully be similar," Mazdzer said to ATR. "Coming after a World Championship we have to refocus very heavily and start preparing. Once we pass through these international training weeks and World Cup there’s not a lot of runs left before the Olympics so it’s a very important time for the team."

Other riders on the USA Luge team are excited to see the new Olympic sliding center for the first time. Tucker West told reporters that he expects the track to be "similar" to the one in Igls. West said the momentum USA Luge has generated the past Olympic cycle has the entire team ready to compete at the 2018 Games.

"Everyone is getting better and better, and we had a record breaking [last] year," West said. "The team as a whole is snowballing; everyone is getting bigger, stronger, and faster. We will just continue that in 2018 and hopefully land on an Olympic podium."

Written by Aaron Bauer

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