Winter Olympics 2010: Father's Stroke, Games Crash Weigh Down USA Luge Manager

Like most kids with a Flexible Flyer under their belly, Fred Zimny had his fair share of bumpy rides while sledding down the picturesque snow-covered slopes at the Fireman’s Retirement Home in Morris County New Jersey.

Neither rain nor sleet nor snow could faze the student at John Hill School as he circled his way around rocks, under trees and over hills near his home in Boonton, N.J. Some four decades later, at the other end of the North American continent, Zimny found himself again at the cusp of uncharted territory.

In his heart, the senior national manager for the 2010 U.S. Olympic luge team in Vancouver pulled for an American medal, while, back in Boonton, the health of his ailing father tugged at his emotions.

Zimny saw his first luge track at 14, when his father, Walter, took him to Lake Placid, N.Y., on the way home from a trip to the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. Walter suffered a stroke earlier this year when Zimny and the U.S. team were training in Lake Placid and has been recuperating at Franciscan Oaks, a life-care community in Denville, N.J.

Prior to the opening ceremonies last week, the younger Zimny had been traveling from his current home in Lake Placid to New Jersey at least three or four days a week to care for his father in New Jersey. He contemplates uprooting his life in Lake Placid and moving back to the Garden State after the Games to be closer to his father and his sister, Bettina Zimmy, in Montville.

“My job is to not to worry about me,” said Zimny, 49, between runs during the women’s competition on Whistler mountain this week. “It’s to worry about our athletes.”

The Vancouver Olympics were anything but a worry-free vacation. Although the Americans failed to win a luge medal—the last coming in Salt Lake City in 2002—there were enough distractions to weigh them down instead.

“People don’t die,” said Zimny, somewhat relieved and anxious to take in some other sports now that the luge competition has concluded. “In the majority of crashes, people just get up and walk away. Crashes are part of the sport. You see them every day.”

Hours before the Games officially commenced, Zimny saw one he will never forget. Within sight of the finish line, and the U.S. team manager, Nodar Kumaritashvili , of Georgia, crashed coming out of the 16th turn and slammed into an unpadded steel pole while traveling nearly 90 mph. Despite frantic attempts by paramedics to save his life, he died at a trauma center.

“I heard the gasps from the crowd,” said Zimny. “My stomach was nauseous the rest of the day.”

But Zimny, who joined the USA Luge coaching staff in 1987 and has been its senior national team manger since 1997, is charged with doing the expected when the unexpected happens.

A team meeting was convened and sports psychologists were made available to the despondent athletes, who had been preparing for the opening festivities, rather than a confrontation with mortality.

Up until then, Zimny had been left to make arrangements, the flight reservations and the hotel accommodations; getting athletes to where they needed to be around the city; the behind-the-scenes logistics that no one wants to do. He is akin to a general manger in baseball, a seasoned jack-of-all-trades, who is well prepared to respond and accept the blame when things go astray.

“It’s been hard,” said Zimny, who finished fourth in the 1980 U.S. Olympic trials in Lake Placid, what proved to be his last shot at earning at spot on a national team. “The first couple of days, we were in shock.  Now the athletes are dealing with it. They focused on what they were here for.”

Zimny has been there. This is his fourth Olympics as team leader, beginning with the Nagano Winter Games in 1998. He carry can the baggage, both his and the team's.

What began with innocent fun in the snow has resulted in what Zimny calls “the ride of his life.”

His journey has made stops in Innsbruck, Austria, for his first world championships at the impressionable age of 16 after just three weeks on a luge; along the roads in Tourne Park in Boonton behind the Fireman’s Home, where he trained on wheels during the summers; to his departure from Vancouver following the closing ceremonies next week.

“Luge is not table tennis,” said Zimny, a 1978 graduate of Boonton High School where he ran cross-country and played baseball. “It takes a lot of fearlessness to go down a track. It’s definitely not for the faint of heart.”

Or, perhaps, for one member of USA Luge torn between Vancouver and his native New Jersey, these Winter Games simply take a heart of gold.