Olympic Motivational Speaker Ruben Gonzalez

Cracked Left Kufen on my Racing Sled

One thing that makes the sport of luge exciting is that no matter how well you are doing, all it takes is a short loss of concentration to make you crash.

We’re all training at the Park City track right outside of Salt Lake City.

Next week we head to Vancouver for the Olympics. The Olympic track in Whistler (70 miles North of Vancouver) is the fastest in the world - 95 MPH and up. The track in Park City is the 2nd fastest in the world, so it’s a great place to train just before the Olympics.

I was training here 2 weeks ago and had no problems. Yesterday I took 3 runs with no major problems. Just a few small things to fine tune.

This morning on my first run, I was trying a different, and better way to steer curve 11. Curve 11 and 12 were great, but focusing so much on the new way to steer 11 caused me to not pay enough attention on 13 and 14 and I flipped off the sled and crashed at 78 MPH.

I slid on my rear end for a couple of hundred yards before I came to a stop. Fortunately I didn’t get hurt. Not even a scratch or a bruise.

But the crash smashed one of my kufens - the front curved part of the sled where we place our legs to steer.

A real bummer a week before the Olympics.

Thank God that I have guardian angels everywhere I go. At the Park City track, one of my guardian angels is Jon Owen.

Jon Owen and I in Jon’s Sled Shop

Jon competed for the US in the 1988 Calgary Olympics. I’ve known Jon ever since 1984 when I got started luging in Lake Placid. Jon runs the US Olympic Development Program in the Western part of the US. He gets kids started in the sport of luge and coaches the Junior National Team.

Whenever I’m in Park City, Jon’s my coach. He actually built my Olympic sled 2 years ago.

So immediately after my crash, I took my sled to Jon and he said he could have it fixed and ready to go for tomorrow morning’s training session.

Jon Owen seeing if my sled can be fixed.

That’s why it’s so important to create a dream team that can pick you up when you are down. No matter who you are, sooner or later life will knock you down. And when it does, you’d better have a team of people in place that can help pick you up.

If Jon had not been there for me, I don’t know what I would have done. Thanks Jon! You are literally a life saver!

And believe you-me, tomorrow I intend to be sharp, focused, and on top of my game when I’m sliding down the track at almost 80 MPH.