Athlete Profile: Mark Grimmette & Brian Martin

by Mimi Wacholder

Mark Grimmette and Brian Martin are celebrities. Well, perhaps not yet household names in the United States, but in countries like Germany, where luge is as popular and omnipresent as our beloved football, they often get recognized walking down the street.

Although luge is one of the less prominent winter sports in terms of media exposure, once every four years as we gear up for another Olympics, luge and luge athletes start to remerge and edge into a corner of the national spotlight. In fact, Mark Grimmette will emerge at the Olympic Winter Games for the fourth consecutive time. If you’re counting, that is an Olympic career spanning an unprecedented 12 years.

At the 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, Mark and former sliding partner, Jonathan Edwards, placed fourth. In 1996, Mark teamed up with Brian Martin, who was sliding into top ten World Cup placements with former partner Dan Warren. USA Luge team coach, Dan Smith of Lake Placid, remembers making initial suggestions that the two team up. “They had similar interests and complimentary personalities,” he remarked. “When pair up teams other considerations include physical characteristics – traditionally a smaller and a larger slider are paired together – and similar competitive experience.” he added. During their first season together, they took to the podium in their first-ever World Cup.

Today, they have been luge partners for nearly a decade and friends for 20 years. “We can be really honest with each other and work through anything together,” commented Mark. “There are definitely times where we have a difference of opinion and even get into some heated conversations about the technical aspect of things, but it is business, not personal.” This business partnership has proven to be quite a successful venture: The partners are the all-time American luge leaders in international medals with 61 awarded including Olympic Games, World Championships, World Cups and Challenge Cups. On the personal side, Mark is engaged to be married to Becky Getman in August 2006.

In 1998, Mark and Brian made history at the Olympics in Nagano, Japan, winning a bronze – their first Olympic medal, also marking the first time American luge had taken to the podium at an Olympic Games. The same year, doubles luge teammates Chris Thorpe and Gordy Sheer placed second.

With USA luge now on the map in international competition, Mark and Brian have set a precedent. “Since the Olympics in Nagano, we have gained a lot more respect and expect more from ourselves on the World Cup scene,” commented Mark.

Four years later, in the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, the team met those expectations by earning a silver medal. After two consecutive Olympics for this duo including a bronze and silver medal respectively, it goes without saying what their expectations or aspirations are for the upcoming 2006 Games in Torino, Italy.

When asked about the pressure this puts on the team, Brian said, “Honestly, the pressure was huge in Salt Lake City on the home turf so it’s really not that different. It’s more motivating than intimidating – the Olympic spirit is so phenomenal and overwhelming. It is the greatest opportunity to shine and stand on the world stage.”

“When you’re a kid, everyone likes to go sledding – luge is just the ultimate version of that,” explained Mark. Mark actually discovered luge as a child and at the age of 14 he helped build a luge track across the street from his home. When it was finished, he got to slide on it and he was hooked. Brian tried the sport through a USA Luge Slider Search program that visited his hometown of Palo Alto, California. As a passionate surfer and mountain biker in addition to his luge career, Brian seeks out adventures involving both risk and exhilaration.

So this is what the luge experience is like: Brian, the smaller of the two reclines behind Mark. In the back, he has more leverage and more responsibility with the “pull start,” where sliders hold handles at the start to pull the sled back and forth before propelling it down the track. The pull start is followed by both partners “paddling” on the track with spiked gloves to attain maximum speed, before assuming the reclined sliding position. Once in sliding position, Mark, the top slider, is doing the majority of the steering, while Brian, unable to see the track ahead receives all of his information by “feel.” Using body pressure to translate from Mark, to Brian, to the sled and to the track, requires immeasurable strength and adaptability, not to mention sheer courage. They steer their way in and out of the dangerous curves on each unique competitive course, making flexibility and versatility key components of the sport.

During the competitive season they try to get in as much track time as possible. In the off-season, their regime includes strength training, pull starts on an indoor start track in Lake Placid (where USA Luge is based), endurance training, sports psychology and yoga.

Their 2005-2006 competitive season began in October. After a challenging start in the early part of this year’s World Cup tour, placing 13th, 9th and 10th, Mark and Brian won a World Cup in Canada, securing them a spot on the 2006 US Olympic Team. “I think that we would have liked to qualify in the first World Cup and gotten it out of the way, but it’s good that the process is over with and the stress is off us – now all we need to do is think about sliding fast,” commented Mark.

“One of the things that hurt us early on is that we just didn’t have enough early season runs. Normally, we get almost 100 runs in before the season, but because of poor weather we got less than half of that. In training, we were seeing good times in our splits and finally it all came together in Calgary” explained Brian.

With three major international races remaining before the upcoming Olympics, Mark and Brian will continue to hone their skills and hope once again rise to the podium. On February 15, 2006, when network television airs Olympic luge races, you can now root for your local “celebrities” to make American luge history and bring home Olympic gold!

Mimi Wacholder resides in Lake Placid where she is a freelance writer, marketing consultant, yoga instructor and figure skating choreographer. She enjoys hiking, climbing, skiing, snowboarding, triathlon and everything about the Adirondacks.