Another Chance For Austrian To Catch German Blink Of An Eye Separates Old Rivals In Luge

After the last two Winter Olympics - eight trips each down icy luge tracks in Albertville and Lillehammer - Georg Hackl of Germany and Marcus Prock of Austria were separated by the narrowest of margins.

The difference between them was measured in thousandths of a second, the blink of an eye in a sport where fractions like that are an eternity.

And that has meant two gold medals for Hackl and two silvers for Prock.

Now, Prock gets one more chance to catch his longtime rival as luge competition at the Winter Olympics began late Saturday night with the first two runs. Two more runs are set for today.

Today’s other action featured the men’s 5,000-meter race in speedskating and the short program in pairs competition in figure skating.

There were four women’s curling matches, including the United States against Canada, and snowboarding got started with the women’s giant slalom. The women’s match between the United States and China was one of five preliminary round hockey games.

Skiing featured the downhill portion of the men’s combined Alpine, the women’s 15-kilometer biathlon and men’s 30K cross-country.

The longtime luge rivals are a study in contrasts: the 33-year-old Prock is a sinewy specimen who spends hours in the weight room, while Hackl is a bulkier 31-year-old who builds his own sleds.

They have been after each other since 1983 at the European junior championships. The rivalry kicked into overdrive in the 1988 Olympics at Calgary, when Hackl won a silver while Prock, the favorite, finished 11th.

Four years later at Albertville, Hackl’s homemade sled recorded three of the four fastest times in the race, enough to beat Prock by just 306-thousandths of a second. Then, at Lillehammer, they were even closer, with Hackl taking the gold by 13-thousandths of a second.

“I am just looking to make the perfect run,” Prock said. “If it is a good race, maybe I can win.”

The course certainly agreed with American sledder Wendel Suckow, who won the 1997 preOlympic World Cup over this run. Suckow, competing in his third Olympics, was fifth in the 1994 games and is America’s best hope for a first-ever luge medal.