KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia (AP) — Tucker West’s long slide to the Olympics began on a luge track his dad built in their backyard.

Inspired by watching the sliding sport during the 2002 Salt Lake Games with Tucker, then only 6, Brett West decided to construct a luge run behind the family’s home in Ridgefield, Conn. Without even drawing up plans, the Wests went to work and wound up with a functional, 800-foot-long wooden track.

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