USA Luge will carry one gold medal with them from Lake Placid into Calgary. Saturday, the lineup of Erin Hamlin (Remsen, N.Y.), Tony Benshoof (White Bear Lake, Minn.) and the duo of Christian Niccum (Woodinville, Wash.) and Dan Joye (Carmel, N.Y.) carried the American squad to a first place finish in the opening team relay event.

Earlier in the week, Hamlin, as well as Niccum and Joye slid to fifth place World Cup results. Hamlin finished fifth in the women’s singles race, while Niccum and Joye, who are in their first season together, captured their result in the doubles race. Julia Clukey (Augusta, Maine) scored the team’s best individual finish over the weekend, fourth, also in the women’s singles race.

All three sleds qualified for the Worlds under USA Luge team selection policies and more are expected to qualify before the end of the weekend. The doubles team of Mark Grimmette (Muskegon, Mich.) and Brian Martin (Palo Alto, Calif.) finished 14th in Lake Placid, but the pair races well on the 1988 Olympic course, recording three World Cup victories. Benshoof is coming off a seventh place finish from Saturday’s men’s singles event and needs another top-11 result to qualify for Worlds. In Calgary, the two-time Olympian has three-career top-six results including a silver medal finish in Dec. 2004. Other U.S. sliders that are partially through the qualification process for the Worlds are Bengt Walden (Westborough, Mass.), Megan Sweeney (Suffield, Conn.) and the doubles team of Matt Mortensen (Huntington Station, N.Y.) and Preston Griffall (Salt Lake City, Utah).

Over the weekend, one World Cup record could fall, one could be matched and a winning streak may continue. Germany’s Patric Leitner and Alexander Resch have raced to 27-career World Cup doubles victories and the pair needs just one more win to surpass fellow Germans Stefan Krausse and Jan Behrendt for the most-career series wins. Germany’s Silke Kraushaar-Pielach is now just a single victory shy of joining Sylke Otto for the most-career women’s singles World Cup wins, at 36 apiece. Finally, Italy’s Armin Zoeggeler is riding a four-race winning streak, dating back to last season.

Racing begins Friday with the Challenge Cup series opener with Benshoof as the reigning overall men’s singles bronze medalist. World Cup women’s singles racing is also scheduled for Friday. Saturday’s schedule includes both the men’s singles and World Cup doubles events.