2002-02-16 The track can't be a mile (1600 m) long. This is against the rules. From: http://www.luge.com/IRO/sup9.htm is the following statement:
SUPPLEMENT 9 REGULATIONS FOR NEW COMBINED BOB & LUGE TRACKS Length of the Track Art.7: Artificial combined bob, luge and skeleton tracks should be 1200- 1300 meters long, 1200 meters of which shall be in descent. The last approximate 100 meters may consist, depending on the speed, of an uphill stretch that must have curves. The maximum gradient of this stretch must not exceed 12%. After time-keeping at the finish, the outrun stretch should not have any curves. Track Characteristics Art.8: The track shall include elements of varying technical difficulty. Particularly demanding elements in terms of driving technique shall be located in the first stretch which accounts for two thirds of the track. At design level, it is to be foreseen to be able to reach a speed between 80 and 100 km/h after the first 250 meters. Curves, combinations of curves and straight stretches of a suitable length shall be inserted into the track. The 1200 m distance is more consistent with the 3/4 mile the luddite at Chicago Sun-times reported on Thursday, but with times to the nearest millisecond, a time for 1200 m is not going to match a time for 1207 m. Those extra 7 m at 100 km/h will add 252 ms to the official time of the participant. But, if I were to guess, Mr. Hashforbrains won't even answer your e-mail. I think you need to light a bigger fire under is ass. John ----- Original Message ----- From: "Norman Werling" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: "US Metric Assn." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, 2002-02-16 17:26 Subject: [USMA:18227] Saturday's 'Luge' article "U.S. silver, bronze winners miss higher spots by inches > Robert Mashburn > Sports Editor > Atlanta Journal-Constitution > > Dear Mr. Mashburn: > > I have read the subject article as it appeared on today's page E9 as written > by Ann Tatko of Knight-Ridder Newspapers. > > May I suggest that you click onto the following Luge web site and see if you > can locate any reference to miles, feet, or inches. > > http://www.luge.com/IRO/sec6.htm > > Ms. Tatko says the track is one mile. I find that impossible to believe. > > Her references to inches or fractions of inches would have required some > fancy calculating all of which would have likely been done in centimeters or > even millimeters. I find it impossible to accept that any Olympic official > would have announced the space between finishers using an unauthorized > measure of inches or fractions of inches. > > Our press continues to try to hide from the U.S. public that the rest of the > world, and for certain the Olympic world, uses the International System of > Units (SI), the metric system. Why? > > Norman Werling > 1240 Hunters Drive > Stone Mountain, GA 30083 > 404-292-9328 > > P.S. Ask yourself who is out of step in the world of measures. It is the > U.S. Then ask yourself who are the fanatics about measures. I think it > would be those who are out of step. > >
