Pennsylvania state police at the Bethlehem barracks have recovered sleds lost by the U.S. Luge Team after the equipment fell off a truck and was picked up by someone on Feb. 15.
The person who found the sleds contacted police after seeing press reports about the incident, state police said Friday. The luge team has been notified and will make arrangements to get their equipment back, police said.
The team, based in Lake Placid, N.Y., was training on a Lehigh Valley ski slope last week and was on the way back to a hotel. The rear door of a truck carrying their sleds was not securely fastened and fell open.
The sleds fell off the truck in the area of Airport Road and Old Carriage Road in East Allen Township, Northampton County, according to a press release issued by state police Thursday.
A resident told police he saw the sleds along the road and then another truck came along and the driver asked the resident who the equipment belonged to. The resident said he didn't know. The driver picked up the sleds, put them in his truck and drove off, police said.
Luge sleds are designed for one or two people and weigh 45 to 65 pounds.
Luge is known as the fastest sport on ice as a luge reaches speeds upwards of 95 miles per hour in Olympic competition. A luge drops about 30 stories (300 feet) on a typical run. The United States has two full-length, certified, Olympic-style luge tracks (Park City, Utah, and Lake Placid).
The word "luge" comes from the French word for "sled."
