Luging Scientist Slides to Success

Written byIshani Ganguli

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Werner Hoeger, the kinesiologist turned luger we linkurl:profiled;http://www.the-scientist.com/2006/2/1/17/2/ in our February issue, came incredibly close to his goal of four clean runs in Torino this weekend. On Sunday, the Boise State professor completed the final two runs of the two-day event, finishing in 32^nd^ place out of 36. Not bad at all for a 52-year-old, the eldest male luger and one of the eldest competitors at the Winter Games. Hoeger took up the sport only eight years ago and balances it with his academic career, albeit in a pretty relevant field. Sliding into the 18^th^ curve on Saturday, he briefly lost control?his sled moving on one blade and then sideways?before he regained his balance and finished off the run. In press reports, Hoeger said his gymnastics training prevented him from crashing in those few seconds.

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