Luge

CALGARY - Regan Lauscher can tell you about the grim old days of Canadian luge. They were stressful. They were demanding and they were entirely short on cash.

"We'd mish mash some parts and throw them together to make a World Cup sled," Lauscher said. "In Latvia, I hurt my ankle and we had no tape to tape it up with. I went to the U.S. team for help. ... We didn't even have a first-aid kit."

That was just before the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. These days, the fortunes of the Canadian luge team have taken a dramatic leap.

After pleading for a title sponsor by wearing For Sale stickers on their helmets, the team has struck a partnership with Fast Track Capital, a private equity company that has promised to pay $1,002,014 over a five-year period.

The money will be used to assist the Canadian team as it prepares for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics while also helping luge athletes develop for the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.

"This is a big help," said Canadian Luge Association executive director Tim Farstad, who noted how the sport had been the only national team without a major sponsor. "We had many contacts right away [after the team's For Sale news conference in February]. Darren Weeks [the founder and chief executive officer of Fast Track] called us the first week and it made sense to us - a young, small company growing and trying to win the gold medal. And the name helped, too - Fast Track."

Prior to landing their sponsor, the lugers had been reliant on Own The Podium funding. The new money, said women's team member Alex GoughÖ, will "ensure Canadian luge athletes remain competitive with the best in the world."

"That was a problem in the past," said Lauscher, 29, who has spent 11 years on the senior national squad. "We struggled to stay afloat. We showed up [at World Cup events] as participants, not as competitors. That's changed."

Lauscher has helped make that change. She won Canada's first silver medal at a World Cup race and has competed in two Olympics. Getting extra money will help the Canadian team achieve its goals, she said, whether through physiotherapy, additional training sessions, coaching or better equipment.

"We're all excited," Lauscher said. "Luge slides under the radar a little bit. We know we don't have the medals and we know we need to prove ourselves but that's what we intend to do."

The Canadian team returned to training Tuesday following a three-week break.

As part of that training, the lugers will work on their paddling (using their arms to push their sleds) inside a community hockey rink before heading outdoors, where they will train on sleds with wheels.