BEIJING (AP) — Earplugs may be USA Luge veteran Summer Britcher’s secret weapon at the Beijing Olympics.
That has nothing to do with noise.
The start to a luge race is critical: Sliders, wearing gloves with tiny spikes on the bottom of their fingertips, dig into the ice as they paddle at the start and look to build every bit of momentum possible to start propelling them down the track.
But Britcher has a broken middle finger on her left hand, so she’s going with a new plan at the start. She’ll dig her knuckles into the ice as she paddles, using earplugs — the soft, pliable, silicon kind — inside her gloves to serve as padding.
“Good innovativeness,” Britcher said.
Hey, it’s the Olympics. Whatever it takes.
The women’s event starts Monday with the first two runs of the four-run competition; medals get handed out Tuesday. Britcher is one of 11 women who won at least one medal in World Cup singles competition this season, and having that many athletes know their way to the podium suggests the women’s event at the Beijing Games could be as wide-open as any in Olympic history.
“I want to slide at least to the level that I’m capable of,” Britcher said. “And I think that if I can pull that together … all of these training runs have felt really good, I’ve got great energy right now just being at the Olympics, and if I can slide to that level and slide to what I know I’m…
