Olympic luge medalist guides the Latvian team using testing facilities in Vuokatti
For all winter sports athletes, gaining a competitive edge ahead of the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina is crucial. The testing environment in Vuokatti has traditionally served Nordic skiing disciplines, but the possibility to measure ice friction in luge has now become particularly valuable for the Latvian luge team.
Since 2018, the friction-measuring equipment at the Vuokatti Sports Technology Unit—originally designed to test snow friction in skiing—has also been used to assess ice friction for luge sleds. Last year there was a collaboration in skeleton, and members of the Latvian national luge team have already tested in Vuokatti on several occasions, most recently in July under the guidance of Mārtiņš Rubenis, the sport’s 2006 Olympic bronze medalist.
“We came here with quite a big team for the first time just to see how everything works,” explains Rubenis. “We explored the equipment and got some insight into what we can do better, because the friction on ice is a very delicate question. There are extremely tiny margins that show improvement and, on the other hand, the things that are not right. We have to be very careful and precise with everything we do.”
Currently, Rubenis is head of both the Sports Technology Center and the Innovative Product Development Unit at Riga Technical University. He is also the chief engineer and coach of the Latvian national luge team.
The linear tribometer in the low temperature laboratory runs luge runner samples on a short test piece rather than on a full-size runner. This provides, however, sufficient data on ice friction. In their measurements, the Latvians make use of reference models of runners from previous years, comparing them to identify new and improved solutions.
“We have some reference models of the runners from the previous years and then we have the new solutions,” says Rubenis, discussing the testing protocol. “Eventually we test them against each other and according to what comes up we make conclusions.”
Similar testing facilities do not exist in Latvia. According to Rubenis, something comparable is under development there, but it will take time. In his view, it is nevertheless useful to conduct measurements elsewhere too, as it allows for the comparison of results.
“It is always useful to have a good comparison,” Rubenis says. “It is also nice to have a small community and share knowledge and experience of testing. Of course, not every country wants to share what they have discovered regarding their equipment, but having the right testing environment and sharing access to it should not be a problem.”
Rubenis also notes that the testing and measuring facilities in Vuokatti are rare.
“There are only a handful of linear tribometers in the world that can measure full-size runners and skis,” explains Teemu Lemmettylä, project manager at JYU-Vuokatti. “The device in Vuokatti is constantly being further developed, with the goal of improving its accuracy to enable measurements at higher speeds, for instance. However, laboratory measurements do not directly replicate competition conditions. Instead, they help rule out sources of error or narrow down alternatives.”
Although equipment plays a crucial role in elite sport’s current pursuit of competitive advantage, human factors remain decisive. Rubenis emphasizes that while every team and athlete in every sport strives for success with the best possible equipment, it is ultimately always the human being behind the performance:
“With the athletes it can be hard to see the improvement because you always have the human factor between the sled and ice. On some days you feel good and you have a perfect run, but on others you don’t feel so good and the run probably doesn’t go so well. Even on the long track, this margin is very small. So what we do here also has an impact on athletes. With our work we try to help them to stay mentally stable and build their confidence regarding which equipment to use in which environment.”
Luge competitions can be held on both natural ice and artificial tracks, but only the latter is part of the official Winter Olympic program. The sport has been included in the Olympics since the Innsbruck Games in 1964. Artificial luge tracks are expensive to build, and there are only 17 of them worldwide. The roots of the sport lie in Italy and the German-speaking countries of Central Europe, which remain luge powerhouses to this day.
The Vuokatti Sports Technology Unit is part of the Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences at the University of Jyväskylä. The unit specializes in multidisciplinary and applied research in sport biology and provides master’s and PhD studies in sports technology. A special focus of the unit’s expertise is technology-driven research.
