A Luge is a small one- or two-person sled on which one sleds supine and feet-first. Steering is done by flexing the sled's runners with the calf of each leg or exerting opposite shoulder pressure to the seat. Racing sleds weigh 21-25 kilograms for singles and 25-30 kilograms for doubles. Luge is also the name of an Olympic sport. Of the three Olympic sliding sports, which include bobsleigh and skeleton, luge is the fastest and most dangerous. Lugers can reach speeds of 140 km per hour. The Guinness World Record is held by Tony Benshoof of the United States who achieved a speed of 139.9 km per hour. One athlete, Manuel Pfister of Austria, reached a top speed of 154 km per hour on the track in Whistler, Canada prior to the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. Street luge is a recent innovation of the sport. Although it is considered an extreme sport, it is not yet an Olympic sport. Lugers compete against a timer and are timed to a thousandth of a second, making luge one of the most precisely timed sports in the world. The first recorded use of the term "luge" is 1905, from the Savoy/Swiss dialect of French "luge" meaning "small coasting sled", and is possibly from a Gaulish word with the same root as English sled. Wikipedia [ - ]

A Luge is a small one- or two-person sled on which one sleds supine and feet-first. Steering is... [ + ]