Why? Because in USA Luge’s headquarters in Lake Placid, N.Y., it is midwinter.

Inside the 7,200-square-foot building is a life-size start track coated with ice. It’s actually three individual practice ramps, each about 10 feet high, with inclines of 25, 30, and 35 percent to emulate the starts at most of the artificial tracks used for international competition. To keep ice on the track, the facility feels as cold as a meat locker — although it’s warmer than Lake Placid usually is in midwinter, with no howling north wind.

It’s one of two indoor start tracks in North America (the other is located in the Ice House in Calgary’s Canada Olympic Park), I learn, and one of seven in the world. No surprise — Germany, a luge powerhouse, has three. The Lake Placid track opened on October 16, 1992 — the centerpiece (literally) of USA Luge’s $1.1 million headquarters.

With luge timed to 1/1000 of a second—and competitions are sometimes won, or lost, by that slim margin—indoor tracks are a key training tool.

A brochure produced by USA Luge describes the importance of a strong start: “The luge start may be considered the most critical part of the overall run. It is a very dynamic, explosive movement and is the only part of the run where the athlete has control over the acceleration of the sled. … It is widely believed that a 0.01 second advantage at the start can multiply to a 0.03 second advantage at the finish.”

Which explains why the current world champion is inside on one of the few sunny days upstate New York has had this summer. The overhead lights aren’t on, so the facility is somewhat dim. But Hamlin doesn’t seem to notice.

Over and over again, she climbs the flight of stairs to the start and places her 50-or-so pound sled on the track with the 30-percent incline (because it’s the most common start ramp angle, she says). She climbs aboard her sled, grabs the ramp’s start handles, rocks forward, and pushes herself back as far as she can go. Then she explodes forward, paddling the ice with her fists. Rather than lying back as she would in a real luge run, she stays upright as the sled rolls up the out-run.

Who knew sliders had such a cool place to train once the ice melted from the real tracks?

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