The USA Luge Slider Search is the official nationwide athlete recruitment tour of USA Luge, targeting young athletes, ages 9-13.  The mission of this grass-roots program, established in 1985, is to identify, train and qualify young athletes for the USA Luge Junior Development Team.  Athletes who may progress through the six-rung development ladder (Junior Development Team, Junior Team Candidate Select, Junior Team Candidate, Junior National Team Select, Junior National Team, Senior National Team Select) have hopes of one-day becoming members of the Senior National and Olympic Luge Teams.

Over the years, the USA Luge Slider Search has traveled over 220,000 miles and introduced the sport of luge to more than 19,000 eager young athletes.  At each series stop, guided by U.S. Olympic and National Team coaches and athletes, participants are taught the basics of riding a luge sled, including positioning, steering and stopping.  Once these skills are developed, athletes take several runs down a paved luge course on wheel-equipped luge sleds.  Finally, athletes test their physical skills through a battery of fitness tests.  Those who show promise in the summer program are invited to Lake Placid, N.Y., Park City, Utah, Marquette, Mich., or Muskegon, Mich. to try luge on ice at a USA Luge sanctioned training site.  The top young athletes from this group are selected for the next year’s development team.

Currently, most of the U.S. Junior National Team was recruited through the USA Luge Slider Search, so it’s no wonder the USA Luge coaching staff feels future National and Olympic Teams will come from this recruiting program.  Brian Martin, a 1998 Olympic bronze and 2002 Olympic silver medalist, was discovered at a Slider Search in 1987.  Eight members from USA Luge's 2010 Olympic team (including Erin Warren the 2009 World Champion, and the entire women's singles squad) were graduates of the Search. 

Each participant need only register for one 2 or 3-hour clinic. Register by phone at 1-800-USA-LUGE, or register online through our secure store site. The Clinics are free.   A cool Slider Search T-Shirt is your gift for attending. 

If you do need to cancel, we ask that you notify us 48 hours in advance so that we can open the spot up to another participant.

Attendees must be present 15 minutes prior to the start of each clinic.  A parent or legal guardian must accompany you.
Wear long pants (not baggy), long sleeve shirt (not baggy) and sneakers. Shorts and T-shirt can be worn for the physical testing portion.

In the event of rain, a clinic may be canceled for safety reasons and will not be rescheduled. A parent or legal guardian must attend the clinic with each athlete. 

To receive information for a future clinic, please e-mail us your name, address, phone number, gender, date of birth, height, weight and clinic you wish to attend at info@usaluge.org, or call1-800-USA-LUGE. 

In accordance with federal law, we do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from children under age 13 without verifiable permission of a parent or guardian. If you are under age 13, you are welcome to browse our web site. However, you are not permitted to use any of the features of our site that require the collection of any personally identifiable information. If we determine that we have erroneously collected a child's information, we will immediately undertake to delete that data from our records.