spiked gloves. The four-foot-long, two-foot- wide fiber-glass sled accelerates to 45 mph within the first 10 seconds and can reach 80 mph. Sliders don't just hang on; they steer with small body movements. In a sense, the sled is not much different from the Flexible Flyers that children use to belly-flop down hills. "This is just the Indy of sledding," says Hughes. Always popular in Europe, the sport is dominated by the high-tech, well-coached East Germans and Italians. But the United States is gaining ground. A refrigerated, Olympic-certified run (the only one in the nation) was built for the 1980 Lake Placid Games, and corporate sponsorships now ease the team's financial plight. More trav- el to meets and better equipment mean a greater ability to vie with Europeans. Last season, the United States placed fifth over- all in the World Cup competition. Masley took a silver and teammate Bonny Warner . won a gold in one meet, and three women placed in the top 10 overall. A medal at Calgary is unlikely, but for the first time American lugers are really in the running. CHRISTOPHER M. BELLITTO inLakePlacid Bladerunners Katie Class cut her first ice when she was only four years old. But figure skating soon palled, and, at six, Class told her father, "I don't like this. I want to go fast." Speed has been her essence ever since, and now the Minnesota junior is one of three collegiate speed skaters on the U.S. Olympic team. A marketing major, Class finds that academe offers a welcome con- trast to her demanding sport. "With skat- ing and training, sometimes you can't real- ly see the immediate results," she says. "In school, you can." Balancing academics and athletics is dif- ficult. Six to eight hours a day for two months of preseason practice and six hours a day during their November-through- March season means that speed skaters must often carry lighter course loads. Dur- ing Olympic training and competition, most contenders "stop out" for a year, so all three of 1988's student Olympians, who were also on the '84 team, are older than their peers. Class is 24, as is Minnesota sophomore Nick Thometz; Jan Goldman, 23, is a senior at MIT, where she is grinding through a premed major. "You can't give 100 percent in four different directions," says Leah Poulos Mueller, executive direc- tor of the U.S. International Speedskating Association. A three-time Olympic silver medalist, Mueller earned her college de- gree 17 years after her high-school gradua- tion. "By the time you're working out eight PHOTOS BY WILLIAM MEYER Love of the sport, not money: 500-meter world record holder Thometz hours a day, school kind of has to take a back burner," she says. American speed skaters have often been outshone by their flashier, figure-skating cousins-even though they've captured twice as much Olympic gold. But in 1980 an honors student at the University of Wis- consin won five gold medals-and scored new status for speed. The vivid sight of Eric Heiden roaring down the ice at Lake Plac- id, powered by the muscles of his 29-inch thighs, made many Americans realize just how compelling speed skating could be. (Heiden now attends Stanford med school and competes in professional bicycle rac- ing.) Even as fans warmed to the sport, however, financial backing remained hard to find. A fund established through profits from the 1984 Olympics did allow U.S. skat- ers to compete in European meets last year. Yet there are no college scholarships for speed skaters-there are no intercollegiate teams-and corporate sponsors are scarce. Katie Class receives backing for her train- ing from A & M records, but neither Tho- metz-who has already broken Heiden's world record for 500 meters-nor Goldman have corporate backers. Less massive: Like decathletes and cross- country skiers, speed skaters must stay for- midably fit for a competition in which they flash around the 400-meter rink at speeds over 30 mph. Most practice outdoors in the winter and bike, run, lift weights and roller-skate to keep in shape during the off season. "You have to do everything to imi- tate skating year-round," says Mueller. But with exceptions like the 6-foot-1, 185- pound Heiden, U.S. skaters have tended to be less massive than their East German and Soviet counterparts. Smaller skaters like Goldman (5 feet 3/2 and 115 pounds), Fast woman: Minnesota's Class Class (5 feet 5and 135 pounds) and Thometz (5 feet 9 and 167 pounds) often perform best indoors, where they do not have to fight the wind. And since speed skating will take place indoors at Calgary for the first time in Olympic history, American chances may be better than usual. Thometz, who has been timed at 36:55 for 500 meters, is given the best shot at a medal among the three American students. Gold- man is expected to rank among the top 15 women in longer distances, and Class is considered a top-six possibility in one or more of her mid-distance events. No matter how she does, Class says, she'll be glad to return to full-time scholarship. "I need a break from real, serious competition," says theyoung woman who has spent 20 years going fast on ice. KAREN SPRINGEN MARCH 1988 NEWSWEEK ON CAMPUS 27