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Skeleton / Luxembourg’s Jeff Bauer wants to qualify for the Olympics at the age of 46

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Jeff Bauer is the only skeleton in Luxembourg history. After missing the 2018 Olympics for bureaucratic reasons, he wants to qualify again for the games at the age of 46. An unusual path – especially because he only discovered the sport nine years ago.

With one hand on his 33 kg skeleton, Jeff Bauer stands at the start of the Whistler (CAN) ice channel. He wears special spikes that make it easier to start on the ice surface. In front of him is a 1,450 meter long route with 16 curves, which Bauer will drive in a few moments at more than 130 km / h. The light switches to green, Bauer runs about 50 meters to lie on his stomach on the skeleton. He puts his arms close to his sides, his legs protrude from the knees beyond the super-flat sled. His face is only a few centimeters above the ice. After the first bends, its speed is over 100 km / h. “It is not harmless,” explains the 46-year-old. “But it is much more dangerous for tobogganists. As skeletons, we don’t fall that often because the skeleton is heavy. ”The higher center of gravity, on the other hand, makes it more risky for tobogganists. At the 2010 Olympic Games, the Georgian tobogganist Nodar Kumaritaschvili died in the Whistler ice channel. The high-speed course has not only been one of the most difficult routes in the world since the tragic accident. “Fifty-Fifty” have called skeletonis, bobsleighers and tobogganists the most dangerous of the curves: the likelihood of surviving them without falling. “I fall more often,” says Bauer. “I am aware of the risk of sport. I haven’t done anything worse than bruises. ”

But that bruises are now part of his everyday life is part of a strange story: nine years ago he discovered sport – now the 46-year-old is talking about Olympia. In sports he had already earned his participation in 2018. The Ohio-born athlete was missing a legal signature to get his Luxembourg passport. The signing came too late, Bauer unfortunately regretted what was happening on the home screen. The fact that he has a right to Luxembourgish citizenship is due to the history of his family. After the Second World War, Bauer’s grandfather went to Luxembourg to hire Goodyear in Colmar-Berg. Bauer’s father also followed in his father’s footsteps in 1979 and brought 6-year-old Jeff with him to the Grand Duchy. Jeff went to school here, learned the languages, and even made it into the junior basketball team. Bauer returned to the United States after twelve years in Luxembourg. Four generations of the Bauer family will have already spent time in Luxembourg when Jeff’s nephew will soon study in Luxembourg.

Bauer currently lives in Park City, Utah. He lives not far from the route that was used at the 2002 Olympic Games. Bauer also discovered sport because of its proximity to the ice channel. At the age of 39, he dared to go down the route for the first time. “I didn’t start with Skeleton because I was thinking about being able to take part in the Olympics,” explains Bauer. “I love sport and new challenges.” When Bauer discovered his talent, his training became more intensive and his ambitions bigger. Bauer began competing in North America to later be active all over the world: St. Moritz, Königssee (Austria), La Plagne (France), Calgary (Canada) or Sochi (Russia) are among the places where he was already starting. In the 2017/18 season, his results were so good that he qualified for the Olympics – had it not been for the bureaucracy mentioned. “It was very bitter for me, as it would have been a dream to go to the Olympics.” It was only in June last year that he received the Luxembourg ID. In March of this year he wore the red, white and blue colors at the World Championships in Whistler, where he finished 31st.

Nationality should therefore no longer fail that Bauer may not take part in the Olympics. But the standards for the 2022 Olympic Games have become stricter. “I have to be in the top 60 in the world,” says Bauer. “Last year I was in 57th place. But it’s all pretty tight. I have to work a lot on myself and confirm my achievements this year and next. ”By participating in the Olympics 2022 in Beijing, Bauer wants to fulfill a dream. “I see it as a realistic goal.”

He trains five times a week for this – on a training day in the canal, he drives down the route three times. “It sounds like little, because a run doesn’t take longer than a minute. But it is so demanding on the body that you need a lot of regeneration time. After three runs, you completed the daily workload. ”Bauer is meanwhile supported by the COSL and the Ministry of Sport. “I am extremely grateful to you for your help. I wouldn’t be able to do all of this without the support. ”Despite the distance, the elite squad athlete is still strongly connected to the Grand Duchy. He still has some friends with whom he is in constant contact. In these conversations, he tries not to completely unlearn the Luxembourgish language. “I am very proud to be able to start for Luxembourg. I am very attached to this country.

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Jeff Bauer, in the footsteps of the only Luxembourg skeletoneur
Mental!

He is the only Luxemburgish skeleton practitioner, this sport where a athletes hurtle down an icy track, head forward, at more than 130km / h. After missing the Olympics in 2018, Jeff Bauer (46) participated in the world championships at the start of the year and is embarking on a new season this winter with several goals.
His family history and the sport he practices are two curiosities that make Jeff Bauer a character totally apart in the Luxembourg sports landscape. Became officially a citizen of the Grand Duchy in June 2018, it was in a red, white and sky blue combination that the American by birth took part in last March at the world skeleton championships in Whistler, the center of sliding sports which hosted the bobsleigh, luge and skeleton events at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games.
From the United States to Luxembourg
Ranked 31st out of 33 competitors, Jeff Bauer finished far from the Latvian Martins Dukurs crowned world champion. Never mind, his victory is elsewhere… Because to understand how Jeff Bauer came to represent Luxembourg in skeleton competitions, you must first go back in time. We are in the Second World War, and Jeff’s GI grandfather is fighting alongside thousands of other Allied soldiers to liberate Europe from the Nazi yoke.
Once the conflict ended, he returned to the United States, before returning to Luxembourg in the 1950s to work for Goodyear in Colmar-Berg. Same thing for Jeff’s father, who studied in Luxembourg in his youth, before returning to the United States… then making his comeback in the Grand Duchy, in order to work for the American tire giant too. Jeff’s father therefore left Akron, Ohio in the early 1980s and took little Jeff, who was only 6 years old, with him. Jeff Bauer lived in Luxembourg until 1991 and even played for the national basketball team on several occasions.
“I met all the citizenship criteria, it was just missing a signature from the Ministry of Justice to validate the procedure, I don’t know why but this signature took a long time to arrive …”
Having left for the United States, he remains particularly attached to the country in which he grew up and where three generations of his family – soon four since his nephew will come to study in Luxembourg – lived. In 2018, Jeff Bauer wanted to participate in the Pyeongchang Olympics and represent Luxembourg, but because of administrative red tape, he did not obtain Luxembourg nationality in time.  But it’s a thing of the past now, I can participate in the world championships and represent Luxembourg.

”Luxembourg obviously does not have facilities to practice skeleton, it is in Park City (Utah), where he lives, that Jeff Bauer trains on the track which hosted the Winter Olympics in 2002. Last year, its winter season was punctuated with some great performances, such as an eighth place during the North American Cup at the end of November in Lake Placid, the first American city to have hosted the Winter Olympics in 1932.

This winter, after an Intercontinental Cup race in Sochi (21st of 23), Jeff is back in New York State at the end of November to compete in two races. “I went to Russia to learn and get to know the track better. ”But training since October 14 and with the start of his season on the very technical track of Königssee in Germany, the skeletoneur believes that his current physical condition is far from optimal, and judges that he is in great need of rest:
“I need a little break, my body has given a lot in recent months, I only had five days of rest. I’ll give myself a few days off before I go back to physical exercise because my head and body need it. ”
Jeff has in any case set himself the main goals this winter, particularly in terms of improving his start, a crucial phase: “I want to know more tracks and gain experience. I want to progress at the level of my sliding, but also at the level of the starts, in particular the sprint. If I can improve all these aspects, I will be a better athlete. ”
After a few well-deserved rest days, Jeff Bauer resumed competition on December 8 on the Lake Placid ice: “I’m a little nervous because in Sochi the level was really high (laughs). I chose to race in competitions of a higher level than last year, to raise my level. That will help me.