90 MPH On A Sled: Framingham Athlete Preps For Olympics

FRAMINGHAM, MA — The U.S. Olympic team competing in this year’s Winter Games, which start Friday in Italy, include a Framingham native and a friend from a nearby town.

Ansel Haugsjaa will race in the men’s double luge, a two-person sledding race, along with Zack DiGregorio of Medway.

As WGBH reported, the two won’t be on the same sled, but they share a common history. Both learned about the sport of luge in Massachusetts before they were teenagers.

It’s a demanding, perhaps terrifying, athletic competition. At the Games in Cortina, Italy, lugers will hurtle down an icy track at speeds over 90 mph.

And at the Olympic level, small differences in steering a sled can have huge results. Races are often won or lost by just fractions of a second.

To read the WGBH profile of these Massachusetts lugers, click here.