Memories of Olympics past

By Medicine Hat News on February 15, 2018.

bpenton@medicinehatnews.com @MHNBrucePenton

One of four Canadian lugers at the 1972 Winter Olympics at Sapporo, Japan, Medicine Hat’s Paul Nielsen has no medal to show for his participation, but he has something almost as valuable — a great memory of when he competed at the world’s ultimate sporting event.

Lugers still go downhill, and fast, but competitors may not recognize much more about their sport from 46 years ago.

Nielsen, a retired visual communications professor at Medicine Hat College who grew up in Standard, Alta., has fond memories of his Olympic experience wearing Canadian colours in Sapporo.

Paul Henderson’s winning goal against the Soviets in the Summit Series — one of the most endearing moments in Canadian sport — happened in September of 1972, but Nielsen’s sports memory of a lifetime happened seven months earlier.

Let’s get the finish line out of the way: Nielsen crashed in the race, did not finish, and suffered only a couple of bruises. “You had to know your lines (on the track),” he said. He went a little astray, hit the wall and well, memories happen.

“We were like pioneers in the sport,” he said. Luge — where a rider lies on his or her back with feet forward and whips down a cylindrical iced course at up to 150 km/h — had been in the Olympic Games only since 1964. The sport was big in Europe, but not well known in North America.

Now 69, Nielsen said he was introduced to the sport in the late 1960s while at school at the University of Montana. He later attended school in New York City, fortunately close to Lake Placid, where one of the world’s best luge courses had been established.

Nielsen said he “hooked into the Canadian contingent” of lugers and went overseas to train in Germany and Austria, where the world’s best lugers lived.

By the time the 1972 Games rolled around, Nielsen said he was ranked “24th or 25th in the world” and was part of a four-man contingent representing Canada.

“We learned so much from the Germans and Austrians when we were in Europe,” he said. “It was a crazy, exciting time of my life.”

The four Canadian lugers got word while in Europe from the Canadian Olympic Committee that they would all represent Canada in Japan. “We’d been driving an old car around Europe, so we sold it to a guy at the airport, flew to New York, bused up to Montreal, got our Canadian clothing, flew on a military plane to Vancouver, where we picked up the Western Canadian athletes, and then flew to Japan.” The Canadian team numbered only about 60, as Nielsen recalls.

Luge sleds have undergone dramatic changes since 1972, he said. He watches the competition in PyeongChang, South Korea on TV and hardly recognizes the equipment. Today’s modern equiment consists of two runners, two steels, two bridges and a lightweight pod seat. The rider wears skin-tight clothing to reduce friction. Back in ’72, a luge sled was not much fancier than a wooden frame with a couple of steel runners. “The sleds today are more custom-formed to the body,” he said. “They’re a lot different.”

Nielsen still has his sled from 1972 but hasn’t used it since 1975, when he finished fifth in the North American championships “with hardly any practice.” He was invited to compete in the 1976 Winter Games at Innsbruck, Austria, but personal issues prevented it.

The Olympic experience was unforgettable for Nielsen, especially the opening ceremonies, he said. “That really sticks in my mind,” he said. “Time Magazine had a picture of the opening ceremonies and if you looked closely, you could see part of our (luge) contingent.”

He fondly remembers time spent in the Olympic village with other Canadian athletes such as figure skaters Toller Cranston and Karen Magnusson.

Today, Nielsen does a little skating and remains fairly fit thanks to a lot of walking. He spends some of his winters in Peru, his wife’s home country and walks up to eight miles a day while there.

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