LAKE PLACID, N.Y. – The White Castle USA Luge Slider Search, using sleds on wheels in the summer and fall to find future national team members and Olympians, will slide into the San Diego Zoo Safari Park in Escondido, Calif. on April 30-May 1.
White Castle, the nation’s first fast food chain, is a USA Luge sponsor and is excited to bring this fun recruitment opportunity to San Diego Zoo Safari Park, 15500 San Pasqual Valley Road in Escondido.
USA Luge’s primary recruitment event, targeting boys and girls ages 9-13, will be held from 9-11 AM, 12-2 PM and 3-5 PM. Participants are asked to attend one session.
The Escondido stop is one of many on the summer and fall recruitment tour which includes locations across the country.
The sessions are free and everyone receives a cool White Castle USA Luge Slider Search T-Shirt for attending.
Erin Hamlin, 2014 Olympic bronze medalist and four-time World Championship medal winner, was identified in a 1999 slider search, while Brian Martin, a 1998 Olympic bronze and 2002 Olympic silver medalist, was discovered at a Slider Search in 1987.
Eight members of USA Luge's 2010 Olympic team, six athletes from the 2014 U.S. Olympic Luge Team, six sliders from the 2018 Olympic squad and four from the recent Beijing team were graduates of the search.
For more information and a registration link, please log on to: https://www.teamusa.org/usa-luge/slider-search.
The mission of this grass-roots program, established in 1985, is to identify, train and qualify young athletes for the USA Luge Junior Development Team. Athletes who may progress through the six-rung development ladder (Junior Development Team, Junior Team Candidate Select, Junior Team Candidate, Junior National Team Select, Junior National Team, National Team Select) have hopes of one-day becoming members of the National and Olympic Luge Teams.
Over the years, the USA Luge Slider Search has traveled over 225,000 miles and introduced the sport of luge to more than 20,000 eager young athletes. At each series stop, guided by U.S. Olympic and National Team coaches and athletes, participants are taught the basics of riding a luge sled at controlled speeds, including positioning, steering and stopping. Once these skills are developed, athletes take several runs down a paved luge course on wheel-equipped luge sleds.
Finally, athletes test their physical skills through a battery of fitness tests. Those who show promise in the summer program are invited to Lake Placid, N.Y.; Park City, Utah; or Muskegon, Mich. to try luge on ice at a USA Luge sanctioned training site. The top young athletes from this group are selected for the next year’s development team.
Most of the current U.S. Junior National Team was recruited through the USA Luge Slider Search, so it’s no wonder the coaching staff feels future National and Olympic Teams will come from this recruiting program.
Register by phone at 1-800-USA-LUGE, or online through a secure store site at http://www.teamusa.org/USA-Luge/SS-Registration-Form.
