Mark Grimmette is competing in the Winter Olympics 2010 in Vancouver in the luge.
The Vancouver Winter Games will be Mark Grimmette's fifth Olympics. He made his debut in Lillehammer in 1994, finishing fourth with then-partner Jonathan Edwards. In 1998, he and Brian Martin earned silver and then grabbed bronze in Salt Lake before crashing in Torino. But each Olympics has been uniquely memorable for the Michigan native. "Each Olympics has been pretty special to me for different reasons," he says.
Martin and Grimmette first paired up in the summer of 1996. They were not funded by the U.S. Luge Association at the time, so they had to pay their own way to Lillehammer, Norway, to compete in their first World Cup race. They finished third—a surprisingly good result for the new pair—and thus earned funding.
Grimmette and Martin—who are the most successful lugers in U.S. history—attribute their successful pairing partly to their easy-going and carefree demeanors. Jokes Martin, "I'm the pad in the sled and he's the hood ornament."
Althought he was born in the college town of Ann Arbor, Michigan, and resides in Lake Placid, Grimmette remains fond of his hometown of Muskegon, located 190 miles west of Detroit. "One of the things that really bothered me during the [Nagano] Olympics was the TV reporters saying I was from Ann Arbor. I might have been born there, but I was raised in Muskegon and learned the sport in Muskegon." During the mid-1980s, a luge run was constructed at Muskegon State Park, across the street from Grimmette's house. The top of the track is named Grimmette Peak in his honor.
Grimmette and Martin, who won bronze in 1998 and silver in 2002, were eliminated when they crashed on their first run in Torino. In the years after the 2006 Games, they struggled, explaining that "bad habits" had developed while both sliders suffered injuries (Grimmette herniated a disk in his back; Martin injured his shoulder). In 2009, they won a bronze at the world championships, only their second medal since Torino.
The Vancouver Winter Games will be Mark Grimmette's fifth Olympics. He made his debut in Lillehammer in 1994, finishing fourth with then-partner Jonathan Edwards. In 1998, he and Brian Martin earned silver and then grabbed bronze in Salt Lake before crashing in Torino. But each Olympics has been uniquely memorable for the Michigan native. "Each Olympics has been pretty special to me for different reasons," he says.
"Lillehammer, just being my first Games ... it was just a great experience. Winning the medal in Japan, that one was very memorable for that reason. And it was a great feeling to be able to be competitive and to win a medal in front of the world crowd. In Salt Lake, it was, again, an incredible honor to win in front of the home crowd—that put a new spin on the whole thing. Torino was tough. The track was very difficult for me. I've since learned how to drive that track a little bit better, but leading up to those Games it was very memorable for the fact of how much of a mental battle I had there."
Martin and Grimmette first paired up in the summer of 1996. They were not funded by the U.S. Luge Association at the time, so they had to pay their own way to Lillehammer, Norway, to compete in their first World Cup race. They finished third—a surprisingly good result for the new pair—and thus earned funding.
Grimmette and Martin—who are the most successful lugers in U.S. history—attribute their successful pairing partly to their easy-going and carefree demeanors. Jokes Martin, "I'm the pad in the sled and he's the hood ornament."
Althought he was born in the college town of Ann Arbor, Michigan, and resides in Lake Placid, Grimmette remains fond of his hometown of Muskegon, located 190 miles west of Detroit. "One of the things that really bothered me during the [Nagano] Olympics was the TV reporters saying I was from Ann Arbor. I might have been born there, but I was raised in Muskegon and learned the sport in Muskegon." During the mid-1980s, a luge run was constructed at Muskegon State Park, across the street from Grimmette's house. The top of the track is named Grimmette Peak in his honor.
Grimmette and Martin, who won bronze in 1998 and silver in 2002, were eliminated when they crashed on their first run in Torino. In the years after the 2006 Games, they struggled, explaining that "bad habits" had developed while both sliders suffered injuries (Grimmette herniated a disk in his back; Martin injured his shoulder). In 2009, they won a bronze at the world championships, only their second medal since Torino.
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