NEED FOR SPEED

Olympic athletes compete for medals based on hairsbreadth margins of performance. Nowhere is the quest for Olympic speed--and the engineering advances that enable thousandths-of-a-second wins--more apparent than on the luge track. Luge athletes, or "sliders," hurtle down the steep, icy chute on open, fiberglass sleds or "pods," pulling an average of 3Gs in a minute-long run. That's about the same gravitational force as astronauts experience during liftoff. Everything, from the athletes' prone positioning, skintight suits, and pointy-toed booties to the lightweight materials and sleek aerodynamic shape of the sled, is designed to minimize friction and maximize speed. That's a tall order at the Beijing Winter Olympics; the Yanqing National Sliding Centre features 16 curves, including the world's first 360-degree twist.