Utahn one of world's best in men's luge competition

PARK CITY — It was more than 11 years ago that Salt Lake City had a party announcing its winning bid to host the 2002 Winter Olympics. The festivities included food, a band, balloons and some booths talking about some of the various sports that would be featured in the future Games.

Preston Griffall visited the display for the luge during the extravaganza — his life hasn't been the same ever since.

"I thought it seemed like a pretty cool sport, something that would be interesting to try," Griffall said. "My parents signed me up for a class to give it a go. The run up here at the Olympic Village was not done yet, so they had us going around cones down a hill on top of the snow by the ski jumps. I guess I did pretty well because I kept at it, and now, here I am."

At 22, Griffall has reached the top level of his sport. He and teammate Dan Joye compete in the doubles competition for the luge. The pair placed eighth at the Olympics in Torino, Italy, earlier this year. Griffall is back in Utah this week along with all the top luge racers in the world for the 2006 Viessmann Luge World Cup.

"It is nice to be back home," said Griffall, who grew up in the Holladay area of Salt Lake and attended Olympus High. "I even got to sleep a couple nights in my own bed before coming back up here (Park City) to join the team at the hotel. Even with the competition being here, I thought it was important to resume my regular training schedule for a race."

Griffall said that people wonder just how much training is needed. What is required for a racer? After all, they are just sliding down the ice on a sled — right?

"Luge is a really misunderstood sport," he said. "It is really technical. People don't know just how many adjustments and how much thinking and everything goes into one slide. The sleds are really very steerable. You could steer it all the way to the top of the wall and back down if you wanted, and when the races are determined by thousandths of a second, every little adjustment and mistake is amplified."

With the times being so close, one thing that makes this weekend's competition interesting is the fact that there is so little separating the top teams. Any one of up to 15 teams could walk away with first place, and all that is required are two good runs, something that Griffall said he and Joye have been working toward.