Luger Faces Uphill Battle Kennedy Tries To Come Back From Old Medical Problem

Four years after he was badly beaten by skinheads while protecting a teammate in an East German bar, U.S. luger Duncan Kennedy is scared again.

This time, it is his sled that he fears. That and the fact that his Olympic career might end before he wants it to.

For the past month, Kennedy, the man everybody always expected to bring home the country’s first Olympic medal in the sport, has been sitting in a daze at home in Lake Placid, N.Y.

While his teammates have been competing in Europe for World Cup medals, a malady Kennedy was born with - a bleeding brain stem known as arteriovenous malformation - has been testing his mettle, sending him into fits of nausea and dizziness as he ponders his athletic future.

The symptoms have subsided for now. Kennedy is off his couch, has begun running errands, and last weekend even went snowboarding as he tries to muster the courage for one last shot at making the U.S. Olympic luge team.

“I am feeling considerably better, but I’m not quite right,” Kennedy said Wednesday during a conference call from USA Luge headquarters in Lake Placid. “It’s sort of always there, but sometimes it’s a little worse than others. My balance has been a little bit strange. It’s not easy.”

It hasn’t been since he was stricken in early November, three days into a 10-day training trip to Nagano, Japan, site of the 1998 Winter Games.

“I was sitting there in a little, teeny cubicle, literally not knowing anything at all,” Kennedy said. “I didn’t know what was wrong with me, and that was a little bit scary. The team was at the track all day and I was just sort of sitting there not knowing what was going on.”

It was a scene reminiscent of one in 1981, when he was first affected by the disorder, and much more severely. He vomited violently, suffered extreme dizziness, came down with a case of double vision, and was partially paralyzed.

It wasn’t so bad this time. When he was cleared to travel, he returned to the United States and was examined by several neurosurgeons.

“Most people are surprised just to find a brain and a brain stem,” Kennedy said as he lent some gallows humor to a difficult moment. “It’s a little unnerving sometimes. Sometimes I feel maybe I’m a little too lax about it. I do realize the seriousness of the situation, but at the same time, there’s really nothing I can do about it. I’ve just got to keep on going.”

Now he just gets headaches, which come and go suddenly.

Because of his health, Kennedy, who has competed in the past three Winter Olympics, has not raced on the World Cup circuit this fall and is in danger of not making the U.S. team. Next stop on the tour is Calgary, Alberta, a week from Friday.

Doctors have given him the go-ahead to race again - they say there is no further risk from any kind of head trauma - so he has to be there to try to qualify for the team.

He is on edge.

“Even though they may say it’s OK to slide, common sense tells me that if the brain is bleeding, it might not be such a good idea,” said Kennedy, who hopes to make his first run on Tuesday, from the women’s start. “Who knows exactly how dangerous it is?

“I really don’t know how I’m going to feel laying on my back going through corners and feeling the G forces and everything. But I need to get on a sled and find out where I’m at, see if it’s even possible.”

The team will be officially announced Dec. 21. He will get the news the night before - on his 30th birthday.

“It’s coming down to the zero hour,” said Kennedy, who has won a team-high 21 World Cup medals since he began racing after the 1980 Lake Placid Games. “If I am ready to slide, now is the time that I have to do it. It’s important for me to try to get to the Olympics.

“Racing’s in my blood, that’s what I want to do. The rest of my season’s been lost. That’s kind of all I have left right now.”

Dopey Russians

Three top Russian swimmers have been banned by their national federation after testing positive for the steroid methandienone in samples taken at an October training camp in Cypress. All had been named to the Russian team for January’s world championships in Perth, Australia.

The three, all training under the same coach, are Vladimir Pyshnenko, a member of the world record 4x200-meter free relay at the 1992 Olympics; Pyshnenko’s wife, freestyler Natalia Mescheryakova, European champion in the 50-freestyle also known for having posed in the Russian edition of Playboy; and backstroker Olga Kochetkova, a member of the silver-medal medley relay at the 1997 European championships.

Traces of a masking drug also were found in Pyshnenko’s sample.

Urmanov remains idle

Alexei Urmanov, the 1994 Olympic figure skating champion, will not compete in this weekend’s Russian Championships because of continued problems with a groin injury. It has kept him out of competition since withdrawing after the short program at the World Championships in March.