Luge

Adirondack Luge Club Challenge Race

Team Simkin strikes gold in Adirondack Challenge race

Aspiring Olympian Vinny Simkin wins individual gold

By RICHARD A. ROSS AND DON SIMKIN

LAKE PLACID, NY - In a sport measured in thousandths of a second, the father-son team of Don and Vinny Simkin of Youngsville had over three seconds to spare in their combined time 1:35:958 gold-medal victory in the first-ever Adirondack Challenge Race sponsored by the Adirondack Luge Club.

The race was part of the club championships held on March 24 at the Olympic Sports Complex in Lake Placid. Vinny also won the individual gold in the youth division with over seven seconds to play with in a two-heat race, with a combined time of 1:34:564. Going into the race, Team Simkin and Vinny himself were the favorites.

And for good reasons.

Vinny is completing his first season as a part of the U.S. Luge Olympic Development Team. The “Devo Team” is the first step on the ladder to the Olympics and is comprised of about 30 boys and girls from all over the United States and is based in Lake Placid and Park City, UT.

Vinny, now almost 14, has been sliding since he was 10. As an 11-year-old, he surprised the field with a bronze medal in the U.S. Luge Association Youth ‘B’ (13 and under) National Championships.

Last year, he came home with a silver medal from the Empire State Games and gold in the Adirondack Luge Club Championships. In February, Vinny raced in the Youth ‘A’ (16 and under) division in Nationals on the Olympic track in Park City. While there was no podium finish for Vinny there, he gained valuable experience on a new track, racing against an older and more experienced field. Vinny is currently seeded eighth in Youth ‘A’ men by the U.S. Luge Association.

To residents of Sullivan County, Don is known first and foremost as a dentist in Livingston Manor. His annual “Dr. Don Games” have become a favorite summer field day for kids for the last 12 summers.

So, how’s an almost 59-year-old handling the 50 and 60 m.p.h. speeds of luge?

Apparently not as well as Vinny, but Dr. Don even surprised himself with his results this season.

Don began sliding last year. After two decades of fabricating mouth guards for Olympic luge hopefuls and Olympians alike, Don couldn’t resist the opportunity to slide with his son in the weekly Adirondack Luge Club sessions on Saturday nights in Lake Placid. Each weekend road trip got Vinny noticed by the coaches. Don got hooked on luge and black and blue. In his first luge race, last year’s Empire State Games, Don finished a respectable ninth place out of 10 in the senior (over 16 year- old) men’s division.

In January, Don and two friends, Jim Murphy and Brett West, from the Adirondack Luge Club ventured to Park City to train and compete in the Utah Winter Games. Blacker and bluer than last season, Don slid to an eleventh (last) place finish while recording his personal bests for the week on the Olympic track. In February, on the home track in Lake Placid, Don’s personal best and fifth place in the senior (51 and older) division of the U.S. Luge National Masters Championships and 11th overall among all men in the 22 sled field made his coach Vinny proud.

Vinny’s goal is a place on the U.S. Olympic Team. Don’s hope is to be there when Vinny represents his country in the fastest sport on ice…and also as a podium finisher in the Masters.