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Show Kaysville youth competes for Junior Olympics as member of luge team By GARY BLODGETT Sports Editor KAYSVILLE - Jim Hadley, of Kaysville, is only 1 3 years old, but he has a dream of being a member of the U.S. Olympic luge team. And he just might make it. Being a competitor in the sport of luge seems like a far-fetched dream for a Utah teen-ager. And until recent months, the sport was completely an unknown to this youngster. Now, Jim is in Lake Placid, N.Y., competing for a spot on the U.S. Junior Olympic luge team. He'll be there for three weeks, not returning return-ing home until late this month, according to his father, Vem Hadley. "Jim is virtually on his own," said his father. "He is among friends and trainers at the training site, but he is the only one from Davis County.' At this competition, a U.S. Olympic development team will be selected to train for future Olympic luge racing teams. "It's a great opportunity for him, but we would never have dreamed dream-ed in a million years that our son would be competing for a spot on the U.S. Olympic development luge team," said Mr. Hadley. "We give him all the support we can." He said that the travel expense for Jim has been extensive, and any donations would go directly toward helping offset these expenses. For further information, call Mark Altom, Jim's scoutmaster, at 544-3424 544-3424 or 546-4604. Mr. Hadley said Jim is not a full-fledged athlete, or a daredevil. "He just took a liking to luge racing and has his heart set on doing his best in the finals back in Lake Placid." Jim is an eighth grader at Kaysville Junior High, and one of the prerequisites is to maintain a high grade-point average while in competition com-petition and training. So Jim had to get special permission to leave school for three 13-year-old is spending three weeks at Lake Placid How Jim qualified for the U.S. finals is a story just about as weird as why he decided to compete in this unfamiliar sport. Jim knew nothing about luge racing. There was no way he could have experienced such a sport. He found out about the regional trials being held in Salt Lake City last summer. He and a few of his friends decided to compete. Since there is no luge run or facility for such a sport, the trials were held down the back side of Capitol Hill, where an obstacle course was designed and a luge was improvised which resembled an oversized over-sized skate board. Jim qualified at this race to compete in the national qualifying race at Calgary, Canada, site of the 1988 Winter Olympics. In Calgary, he went through a full week of competition the first time he had ever ridden a luge and placed second among 18 in his division. This was good enough for him to qualify for the Olympic finals at Lake Placid. weeks but that doesn't mean he left the books behind. "Jim took an armload of books with him, and there are tutors at the training site who will be working with these kids to be certain that their studies are not forgotten," his father emphasized. A recent telephone call back home assured Jim's parents that he is doing well once he got out of New York City. Jim had airline reservations through New York City to his destination. destina-tion. But the day he arrived in New York was the day an ice rain hit the Big Apple and Jim was 'put up in a New York hotel overnight. "It was quite a frightening experience, but Jim handled it well," said Mr. Hadley. "The next day he flew to Saranac Lake, near Lake Placid, and they were bused to the training site a short distance away. Now Jim's parents, Vem and Sharon, are anxiously awaiting the results of the trial runs at the former Olympic site. |
