Unlikely Aussie luger slides with pride to Beijing

SYDNEY - Townsville in Australia's tropical far north is an unlikely place to produce an elite competitor in the winter sport of luge.

Yet it was in this sun-soaked Queensland city that Alex Ferlazzo kicked off a career that will soon land him back in Beijing for a third crack at Olympic glory.

"It's awesome representing the country in front of all my friends and family and the rest of the world. The Olympic Games is the pinnacle of someone's career," Ferlazzo told Xinhua.

The 26-year-old's long and winding journey began more than a decade ago when his mother's friend suggested he might want to try a sport that involves sliding on a tiny sled down an ice track at speeds of more than 140 km/h.

His curiosity thoroughly piqued, Ferlazzo joined a group of novice lugers, or sliders as they are often called, in New Zealand, where they were schooled in the fundamentals of the sport.

The concept of luging is simple, but the art of executing it well calls for great strength and exquisite timing. Sliders begin a race by pushing hard against two handles on each side of the narrow track, then they lie on their backs as they hurtle feet-first down the steep incline, complete with twists and turns, relying on hair-trigger reflexes to get them safely across the finish line.

"I loved luging straightaway. It was so much fun. The way it forces you to focus your attention is an absolute thrill," Ferlazzo said.

Back in his hometown, the determined teen continued to hone his skills by cobbling together a four-wheeled sled to hurtle down the neighboring hilly streets.

Ferlazzo's unconventional training regimen was soon paying off. In 2012, he competed at the inaugural Winter Youth Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria; he won the gold medal at the Luge Junior World Cup in Canada in 2014, and in the same year competed at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

Ferlazzo returned to the Olympic arena four years later in Pyeongchang, South Korea, where he finished 28th in one of the best ever performances by an Australian competitor in a sport long dominated by European powerhouses such as Germany, Austria and Latvia.

Now he is gearing up to return to Yanqing National Sliding Center to test his mettle against the world's best at the Beijing Winter Olympics in early February.

Ferlazzo is familiar with the track, having had about 30 runs there in November during the first World Cup races of the season.

"The Beijing track is an interesting one. It's quite different. It's very long, all the corners are open," he said.

Ferlazzo explained that the Yanqing track generates relatively less g-force, so instead of relying on the pressure, sliders depend more on steering points.

"I like the track. It's a lot of fun. It's got some very technical points and I think it will make for some interesting viewing come the Olympics," he added.

Like most athletes, Ferlazzo has had to overcome difficulties presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, especially given that the international luge circuit requires a lot of overseas traveling for Ferlazzo.

"The pandemic stopped me from heading overseas last season, so I missed an entire year of sliding. It's quite a dramatic change in luge where experiences are so important," he said.

On the plus side, he said the downtime had mental and physical benefits as he was able to reassess his priorities while his body healed from "niggling" aches and pains that inevitably come from the adrenaline-charged sport.

"I think the time off gave me a clean slate to restart my sliding," he said. "Then when I jumped back on a sled it felt so natural... it was like riding a bike again."

Preparing for the Beijing Games, Ferlazzo is focusing exclusively on the competition and blocking out all the noise-including Australia's diplomatic boycott of the Games.

"The boycott is a talking point among the athletes... but we're all here to just compete against the best and hone our skills," he said.

"We've put too much into this. We'll just get to the Olympics and compete to the best of our ability."

Xinhua