A luge is a one or two person toboggan, consisting of a
seat across two sharp metal runners.
At the starting line, the lugers hold onto metal handles along side the track and rock back and forth. The final pull on the handle should be a strong one to send the luge on its way.
After starting from a sitting position, the competitors lean back almost flat on the luge and steer by pulling on a rope and by changing body position.
A luge travels faster with a heavy load so in a doubles competition the heavier of the two lugers lies in the front position.
A luge course is made of concrete covered with ice, and has many steeply banked curves. The luge can reach speeds of up to 130 kilometres per hour during a race.
Competitors wear tight clothing, gloves, which have small spikes in the palms, and a helmet.
In Olympic competitions men and women compete individually or in teams of two. In individual competitions each competitor, or slider, completes four runs of the course. The times of each run are added together and the slider with the fastest time wins. In the team event, each team completes two runs of the course and the times of each run are added together.
Luge became an official Olympic sport in 1964.
Go here to read more about this sport http://www.olympic.org/en/content/Sports/All-Sports/Luge/
If you use any of this
information in your own work acknowledge this source in your bibliography like
this:
Thomas, Ron & Sydenham, Shirley. Luge [Online] www.kidcyber.com.au (2010)
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