LOCALadk Magazine

44 Winter 2017 LOCALadk Magazine LOCALadk athletes teach participants the basics of riding a luge sled: positioning, steering, and stopping. Once these skills are de- veloped, participants take several runs down a paved luge course on wheeled sleds. Finally, participants test their phys- ical skills through a batter y of fitness tests. Those who show promise are invited to Lake Placid, New York; Park City, Utah; or Muskegon, Michigan to tr y luge on ice. The top young ath- letes from this group are selected for the next year's devel- opment team. (Go to USALUGE.org to find out more about the program.) While the specifics of each sport may differ, the financial and time commitments required of hopeful Olympians and their families are generally significant. Most American ath- letes participating in Olympic winter sports are not profes- sionals, nor do they have the level of sponsorship that many of their European counterparts do. Most train five to six hours a day, 11 months out of the year, and many rely on family, friends, fund raising efforts, and part-time jobs to help them offset their expenses as they work their way up the ranks. Once becoming members of the Junior Development Team, Matt and Jayson were responsible for the costs associated with team membership, uniforms, helmets, track fees, trav- el expenses, and other equipment purchases. An athlete's family is also responsible for getting him or her to and from training camps, which usu- ally run a week at a time. In Jayson's case his parents would drive the six hours to Lake Placid, drop him off, and head back home the same day. Matt's parents loaded up all siblings into the family car and did a similar same-day round trip from Long Island to Lake Placid. Coming from a family of nine, Matt took on the financial challenge by working a series of odd jobs and reaching out to potential donors. This afforded him the opportunity to spend four weeks training in Latvia and France. In Jayson's situation, his mom – along with residents of his hometown – held near-continuous fundraising events to assist him. By his own admission, Jayson would almost certainly not be competing today if it was not for their generosity. Also, like so many other world-class athletes, Jayson and Matt had to work a series of part-time jobs to support their living ex- penses. These jobs included construction, dishwashing, wait- ing tables, and deliver y. Only after an athlete has been on the team for three or four years does the organization cover more of the expenses. Also, if an athlete becomes a member of the National Team, he is eligible for a stipend from the USOC . Jayson spent five years on the Junior Development Team before moving up to the Candidate Select Team (no longer in existence). Jayson, while still a Candidate, was given the opportunity to compete with the Junior National Team in the winter of the 2006-2007 and with his doubles partner at the time, Chris Mazdzer, (a two-time Olympian, recipi- ent of 10 World Cup medals, and also an Athlete Mentor for Classroom Champions, a non-profit organization partnering Olympic athletes with students and teachers in underser ved communities) won a bronze medal in just their second Junior World Cup race. As a member of the Junior National Team he continued to compete in both singles and doubles and it wasn't until joining the Senior National Team in 2008-2009 that Jayson committed full-time to doubles. Matt began competing on the Junior World Cup Circuit in 2000 and became a member of the Junior National Team in 2002. He started to compete in dou- bles in 2002 with his first partner, Ga- ron Thorne. In 2006 Matt became a member of the Senior National Team, where he continued to compete in both singles and doubles until making the full-time commitment to doubles in 2007. In 2010, Matt narrowly missed mak- ing the Olympic Team and as a result he had to make some tough decisions. If he was going to continue competing, he knew he was going to have to spend more time training. Working construc- tion jobs in the off-season wasn't per- mitting that. It was around this time that he heard about the U.S. Army World Class Athlete Program (WC AP). WC AP pro- vides active duty, National Guard, and reser ve soldier-athletes the opportu- nity to train and compete in national and international com- petitions leading to Olympic and Paralympic Games. Matt, along with teammate Emily Sweeney, are members of WC AP and both are active members of the National Guard, where they hold the rank of Sargent. Luge athletes typically follow an Olympic lifting program to gain the explosive power they need to generate from their upper bodies at the start of a race. A typical training session begins with warm-ups and stretching, then a workout on the start track at USA Luge headquarters. From there they head down the road to the Olympic Training Center, where they do medicine ball and sprint workouts, and then it's into the gym to work with the strength and conditioning coaches. At the end of September, the athletes usually move to the track and the strength and conditioning program is scaled back because more time is spent sliding. This is also when Matt and Jayson spend a lot of time reviewing video of their training runs. It is through analysis that the athletes see their mistakes and make adjustments When the season begins the Celebrating after a run on the Lake Placid Track

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