USA Luge and Adore Creative premiere visually stunning film featuring the fastest sport on ice

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. - On March 24, USA Luge launched a marketing campaign following the release of a promotional film featuring the fastest athletes on ice. The film, designed to capture the intensity of the athlete’s experience, the concept of speed and the perception of time, was created by world famous sports filmmaker, Rupert Wainwright, and his firm, Adore Creative of Los Angeles. USA Luge also used the talents of Olympic bidding, marketing expert and USA Luge board member, Terrence Burns as part of the creative team. Rounding out the creative team is George Hirthler, noted Olympic bidding expert, historian and marketer.

The film is available for viewing at usaluge.org, the USA Luge Facebook page and the USA Luge YouTube channel.

Adore was on location at the Utah Olympic Park Track for three days, capturing runs by the nation’s top lugers, including the first-ever female Olympic medal winner for the United States, Remsen N.Y. native Erin Hamlin and two-time Olympian and World Cup medalist Chris Mazdzer of Saranac Lake, N.Y. Also featured in the video are 2010 Olympian and World Cup medalist Julia Clukey of Augusta, Maine and Emily Sweeney of Suffield, Conn., also a World Cup medal winner. The World Cup medal winning doubles team of Matt Mortensen of Huntington Station, N.Y. and Jayson Terdiman of Berwick Pa. appear in the piece, with 2014 Olympians Summer Britcher of Glen Rock, Pa., Aidan Kelly of West Islip, N.Y. and Tucker West of Ridgefield, Conn. West became the youngest-ever World Cup winner in USA Luge history in December of 2014.

"This film kicks off something new and powerful for our athletes and programs," said USA Luge Association CEO, Jim Leahy. "The creative in the film gives us a chance to tell the story of our sport broken down to its most basic component; the luge athlete’s never ending competition against time. The difference between going home with a medal or going home empty handed is literally milliseconds."

The video is being released on the heels of one of the best seasons in USA Luge history, with twelve medals in World Cup competition, one shy of the team record established during the 1996-1997 season. Included in this season’s total are three gold medals and three track records. An aggressive push in sled technology, top coaches, quality training facilities and most importantly, world class athletes have been key elements to this success. But the team’s medal haul this season would not be possible without the financial support of American companies and the film hopes to attract new funding opportunities for the organization.

"Rupert’s team worked alongside our team to create a promo film designed to communicate the beauty and intensity of this high performance sport, raise awareness among young athletes and attract new team sponsors. The end result satisfied all three objectives brilliantly," said Leahy.

The Adore team was also on site with members of USA Luge at the San Diego Wind Tunnel. The team uses the state-of-the-art facility to measure wind resistance, test suit material, equipment, and aerodynamic body position on the sled. Adore’s film describes how races can be decided by just a 1/1000th of a second, illustrating how the tests are a crucial part of winning.

With sled speeds in excess of 90 MPH, Adore employed the use of a special high speed Phantom camera. Filming at 3,200 frames per second slows the action down so the viewer can see the tiniest details, even though the athletes are traveling at mind boggling speeds.

USA Luge Board member Terrence Burns was delighted to introduce his longtime collaborators Adore Creative to USA Luge. "I’ve been fortunate to work on winning bid campaigns with both Rupert and George all around the world, and it occurred to me that they would make a great creative resource for USA Luge – and they have," said Burns.

Adore Creative is an award winning advertising agency and production company, which has built a unparalleled record of winning campaigns for the Olympics, the FIFA World Cup, Reebok, AT&T, Fox Sports One TV, and many, many other clients. They are dedicated to producing innovative and successful creative work winning awards in the US and all over the world including two Grand Effies, a Grammy, MTV Awards and several Cannes Dolphins. They are currently working on the Winter Olympics 2022 campaign.

In recognition of the film and Adore’s efforts on this project USA Luge has named Adore Creative as an official supplier, alongside other major brands Norton/Saint-Gobain, Team Worldwide, Dow and U-Haul.

"A most sincere ‘thank you’ to the entire staff at Adore Creative, Terrence and George for putting together a great promotional luge video. The professionalism and great eye for detail has provided a platform to take our team’s message further than we ever imagined," concluded Leahy.

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