Luge
Despite joining the Olympic roster in 1964 (in Innsbruck), luge remains an elusive sport, with only a dozen or so internationally certified, full-length tracks in the world; one of the newest and most challenging of the lot is the Olympic run at the Verizon Sports Complex, just seven miles from the picturesque village of Lake Placid, the winter-sports mecca in upstate New York that hosted North America’s first Winter Olympics in 1932 (a role it repeated in 1980). This is where the USA National Luge Team trains, and, for $30 a pop, you can join their ranks by piloting your own semi-enclosed, modified luge (French for "sleigh") on the Luge Rocket (a moniker given to these single-person sleds which propel lugers along a newly constructed track at speeds of up to 80 mph). Just lie down (feet first), relax (if you can), and in just 16 heart-pounding, mind-bending curves, you’ll know if you have what it takes to spend three days learning the sport, at the Lake Placid Fantasy Camp ($2000). The March program is administered by Olympian athletes and culminates with an action-packed race.
