credits: Nicole Cvetnic, Observer-Dispatch

The 2009 Women's Luge World Champion Erin Hamlin of Remsen uses a medicine ball during a cross training workout in the U.S. Olympic Training Center gymnasium in Lake Placid.

World champion luger Erin Hamlin from Remsen is scheduled to attend and do some coaching.

Hamlin, 22, is the reigning women’s singles world champion, winning the title in February in Lake Placid. She also competed in the 2006 Olympics in Torino, Italy.

Hamlin got started 10 years ago in slider search in Syracuse. Ninety percent of the athletes on the USA Luge team started the same way. For 24 years, up to 10 slider searches a year serve as the organization’s primary recruiting tool.

“I didn’t know much about the sport at all,” Hamlin has said. “I tried it at the clinic. I’ve always had a competitive edge and there’s a group of kids you’re with and you want to be the best one in the group.”

Hamlin said athletes don’t need to worry about advance training. She suggested participants wear pants, a long-sleeve shirt and sneakers that can be “scraped up.” The sleds, which operate on wheels, won’t travel more than 25 mph.

Hamlin grew up wanting to be an Olympic athlete. She thought it might be in gymnastics, which captured her attention when she was young. With luge, as Hamlin has said, you go faster and don’t get in trouble for it.

There also is the chance to see the world.

Hamlin has been to at least 10 countries for luge and travelled through many others.

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