Adam Heidt has learned from experience.
As a result, he is within striking distance of history.
Heidt finished the first two runs of the men’s singles luge competition Sunday at Utah Olympic Park in fourth place, 72-hundredths of a second from a bronze medal. No U.S. competitor has won a medal in Olympic singles luge.
It will probably take a slipup by two-time silver medalist Markus Prock in Monday’s final two runs for Heidt to slip past the Austrian into third, but the 24-year-old from Northport, N.Y., wasn’t counting himself out after posting two strong runs accompanied by fans’ shouts of “USA.”
“I’m just going to go out and slide my best,” he said. “I think I have a great chance.”
Italy’s Armin Zoeggeler has a pretty good chance himself to end the dynasty of Georg Hackl of Germany. Hackl, trying to become the first Winter Olympian to win four straight gold medals in the same individual event, trailed Zoeggeler by .041 seconds despite setting a track record of 44.494 seconds on his second run.
Heidt’s performance Sunday seemed surprising, given his 13th-place finish on the 2001-02 World Cup circuit. But he placed fifth in the Cup finale late last month in Winterberg, Germany, and was second to Hackl in the final training run here Saturday. Even Hackl called him a potential medalist.
“Everything just came together for me,” Heidt said. “I knew I could do it.”
A big reason he knew is that he finally knew what to expect. In the 1998 Games in Nagano, Japan, Heidt was by his own description bedazzled, largely by the decibel level of the Olympic-size crowd.
“There was really nothing that could have prepared me for what I was about to face,” he said last week in explaining his ninth-place finish.
The secret to Olympic success, he realized through work with a sports psychologist, was simply to relax and focus. And the success of that approach was evident Sunday not only in his total time of 1:29.410 but also in his postrace attitude.
He dismissed Monday’s competition as “just another race” and almost seemed to buy it. And he steadfastly refused to be drawn into describing what winning the United States’ first singles luge medal would mean.
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“Can I let you know tomorrow if it happens?” he said.
With a .075-second lead over fifth-place Karsten Albert of Germany, Heidt at least is poised to achieve the best U.S. men’s singles finish ever. Wendel Suckow placed fifth for the U.S. in 1994 at Lillehammer, Norway.
Hackl won his second gold medal in Lillehammer, but poor starts Sunday may cost him his fourth. The 35-year-old, whose starts are hampered by an old back injury, spotted Zoeggeler a .05 total advantage in starts Sunday.
“My goal is still a medal, but I made too many mistakes today,” Hackl said through a spokesman after finishing the day with a time of 1:29.108.
Zoeggeler, 28, chased Hackl at the last two Olympics, winning silver in 1998 and bronze in 1994. He won just one of the six training runs while Hackl was winning three, but Zoeggeler showed Sunday he may finally overtake the master.
Zoeggeler pronounced himself satisfied with his 1:29.067 but has seen enough of Hackl to know that his first gold medal is far from won.
“I think it will be decided on the fourth run,” Zoeggeler said.