The tragedy fuelling Rupert Staudinger’s Winter Olympics journey

Staudinger’s friend and mentor, AJ Rosen, passed away shortly before Christmas

Rupert Staudinger in training ahead of the Winter Olympics (Getty)

There’s a Jerry Seinfeld joke about luge that springs to mind every four years. It is, he said, the only Olympic event where you could have people competing in it against their will and it would look exactly the same.

Rupert Staudinger has heard it before but adamantly insists there’s nowhere else he’d rather be than gazing up expectantly at Beijing’s brown mountains.

Staudinger’s Olympic journey, from Bavaria, where he was born to a British mother and German father, is one of those stories you tend to find at these Games.

There are many ways to get to an Olympics and winter sports athletes invariably tend to take the road less travelled.

Four years ago Staudinger finished 33rd on his Olympic debut in PyeongChang, 11 places behind his team-mate, friend and mentor AJ Rosen.

Three-time Olympian Rosen passed away shortly before Christmas, sparking tributes across the sporting world, but his memory is fuelling Staudinger’s campaign in Beijing.

“This Olympic Winter Games will be for him,” he said, whose Olympic exploits will be broadcast live on discovery+, Eurosport and Eurosport app.

“I have my helmet with a little memory on it saying ‘rest in peace AJ’, so I’m going to be sliding for him, definitely.

“The way he taught me how luge works as well as the way he explained all his experiences just had a massive impact on me. “There’s been so much going on recently - negatives, positives, but especially negative moments with AJ’s death.

“It’s unbelievably sad because he was more than a teammate but a really good friend.

“He had such a massive impact on my career, and I think I definitely would not have made it to the last Olympics without him.”

Rosen’s sixth place at the World Cup in Calgary in 2009 still represents a best-ever result by a British slider on the world stage.

He passionately campaigned for more investment, especially when he saw the millions lavished on skeleton - Britain’s national winter sport with seven medals from the last five Games, including three golds.

Staudinger’s preparations for Beijing have benefitted from a £6,000 injection of funding to luge via UK Sport’s Beijing Support Fund.

The skeleton sled is thinner and heavier than the luge sled, giving the rider more control.

Skeleton is the slowest of the three sliding sports, as skeleton’s face-down, head-first riding position is less aerodynamic than luge’s face-up, feet-first ride.

Staudinger is currently ranked 40th in the world in a sport dominated by the powerhouse nations of Germany, Austria, Latvia and Russia.

The super-fast track at the Yanqing National Sliding Centre is full of high corners, twists, turns and features the only 36-degree cycle in the world.

He describes competing there as a bit like Mario Kart, every corner powering up to a vertigo-inducing finish.

“My aim is to show the world that we Brits can slide super well, show them we and I deserve to be there,” he added.

“Four years ago, it was just crazy, just mad and everyone was so hyped – I had family trying to book tickets to get to the venue.

“This time, it’s just me and the support team. I don’t have a teammate either, so it feels different. That’s why I’ll be thinking of AJ a lot in the next few days, this one is for him.”

Watch All the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 live on discovery+, Eurosport and Eurosport app