Luge is huge for CCRI professor Mowry

Posted 2/13/14

Every four years, average American sports fans get a glimpse of competitions they know very little about at the Winter Olympics. Curling, bobsled, speed-skating, biathlon, luge – the list goes on …

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Luge is huge for CCRI professor Mowry

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Every four years, average American sports fans get a glimpse of competitions they know very little about at the Winter Olympics. Curling, bobsled, speed-skating, biathlon, luge – the list goes on and on.

But Cranston’s John Mowry is not your average American sports fan. When the 58-year-old CCRI professor watches luge, he’s seeing a lot more than the rest of us.

“I’m watching the lines that they’re taking, where they’re getting into the curves,” Mowry said. “If you get in a little bit too late, then at the end of the curve, you’re going up when you should be going down. I’m looking at how they’re setting themselves up, especially in the straight-aways on that track in Sochi. That’s critical – laying back, relaxing, letting the sled track itself dead straight. All those little things add up to thousandths of seconds.”

And for Mowry, they add up to a passion.

He got involved with the sport because he thought it looked like fun. Nearly 40 years later, he’s a world-class official who served as the luge race director at the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics. He has seen the world one luge track at a time – and he’s enjoyed every second.

“It’s been a great experience,” Mowry said. “I’ve met a lot of interesting people. I’ve traveled around the world. It’s been a lot of fun.”

Mowry was nominated to be a technical delegate for the 2014 games in Sochi, Russia, but another American official was selected, which left him out. He’s watching from afar, enjoying a sport that has become a huge part of his life.

That process began on a lark. He was watching the 1976 Innsbruck, Austria Olympics on television and was fascinated by the lone athletes, careening down an icy track at break-neck speeds.

“I said, ‘That’s really cool, I want to try that,’” Mowry recalled.

Luge isn’t something a casual weekend warrior just picks up, so nothing came of the initial spark. But a few years later, Mowry met someone who was part of the United States Luge Association. He learned about opportunities for trying the sport and getting involved.

In 1984, he found himself in Lake Placid, N.Y., screaming down the ice on a tiny sled.

“We started at the old turn five on the Lake Placid course, then you move up and up as you get better,” Mowry said.

From the beginning, the rush was unlike any other.

“Racing a luge is like racing on a Ferrari,” Mowry said.

Luge is one of three Olympic sliding sports, along with bobsled and skeleton. Luge is the fastest of the three, with high-level competitors reaching speeds upwards of 80 miles per hour.

“It’s really interesting,” Mowry said. “A lot of people think you just lay on that sled. You don’t. A good athlete can put that sled within a dime of where they want to be. It’s that steerable.”

Mowry took part in various events at Lake Placid and competed once in the Olympic trials. He stuck with it for many years, competing in masters and seniors series, but officiating became his main focus.

That track has allowed Mowry to have a hand in the highest levels of the sport. He started officiating at World Cup events, and by the time preparations got underway for the Salt Lake City Olympics, his resume had him at the top of the list for the race director position.

He trained 182 officials for the Olympics, then oversaw every step of the proceedings, from athlete meetings to championship runs.

“It was a great experience and we were very successful,” Mowry said. “Salt Lake was the only time so far that there wasn’t a protest in the Olympics. We set attendance records every day and we were the second highest rated sport for TV coverage in Europe. When everybody says, ‘You did a good job,’ I didn’t really do the job. I had 182 people who were tremendous helping me out.”

And the Olympic experience only stoked the fires of Mowry’s luge passion.

“When we first got to Salt Lake, my assistant director and I said, ‘Are we going to do this again?’ We both said, ‘No, never,’” Mowry said. “Halfway through the games, we said, ‘Maybe.’ Last sled came down, we said, ‘We’re definitely doing this again.’ It was just a really great time.”

Mowry hits one or two international races a year, juggling his travel plans with his schedule at CCRI, where he teaches computer networking.

Last year, Mowry traveled to Sochi, Russia – site of the 2014 Olympics – for the World Cup, which also served as a test run for the Olympic luge track.

He loved what he saw there.

“Sochi is a tremendous place,” he said. “You hear all the things about the bad water, the bad hotels. The hotel I was in up by the track was better than most hotels I’ve stayed in in the U.S. It was beautiful.”

Mowry spent part of last month at the Junior World Championships in Austria. He was back in Rhode Island in plenty of time to catch as much of the Olympic action as possible. He was thrilled to see American Erin Hamlin take a bronze medal in singles luge on Tuesday, and he hopes the U.S. teams can someday catch up to their European counterparts. Germany, Italy and Austria dominate the medal stand.

“Germans practice six times in the morning and six times in the afternoon,” Mowry said. “Our equipment is top notch. We just have to light that same fire.”

For Mowry, the fire is still going strong. He’s up for re-election to the Federation of International Luge’s technical commission in June and hopes to be reappointed.

“Hopefully the association will keep me there,” he said. “Then we’ll see.”

Regardless, he’ll stay involved.

Luge may be a once-every-four-years curiosity to most.

To John Mowry, it’s the best sport there is.

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