Flying doctor Desmond ready for Beijing experience

The Winter Olympics may be the Mecca of adrenaline junkies and the sport of luge may produce some of its most dedicated followers – but history-making Irish athlete Elsa Desmond doesn't count herself amongst them despite routinely reaching speeds of up to 140km per hour in her sled.

"As a kid I was scared of everything," said Desmond, who will become the first Irish athlete to compete in the sport when the opening women’s run is staged at the Yanqing National Sliding Centre in Beijing on Thursday.

"I was scared of revolving doors. I was scared of a lot of things and I tried to overcome that and it just never stopped."

Doctor Elsa Desmond, to give the Maidenhead-born athlete her full title, knows all about treating cuts and bruises, but she feels that there is too much focus on the crashes in the sport and not enough on the enjoyment it brings to those who take the icy track.

In summary, luge is similar to the bobsleigh and skeleton events in that competitors hurtle themselves down icy courses at ridiculous speeds. In luge they do it feet first and of the three it’s the only one where athletes actually start their run in the sled.

It can be a hairy watching experience seeing the twists and turns being navigated at such high speeds, but Desmond is calm about the pitfalls involved.

"Not very," was her reply when asked just how dangerous the sport is.

"When you’re starting out, you begin three or four corners from the bottom on your first run and you don’t really get faster than 50km an hour.

"Then you work your way up the track as you get more experienced until you can go from the start.

"When you’re learning how to steer, you’re also learning how to crash safely. When you flip, you have to keep hold of your sled and you need to let