They hop on a sled and begin their daredevil sojourn in the ultimate race against time.

Welcome to the world of luge sledding, the fastest sport on ice, whereby individuals lie on a small, one- or two-person sled face up and feet-first.Faster than its Olympic sliding sport counterparts bobsleigh and skeleton, luge is also considered to be the most dangerous of the three Olympic sliding sports.With that type of adrenaline rush, it's no wonder that luge continues to pick up steam several decades after the first artificial American track was completed for use in the 1980 Winter Olympic Games in Lake Placid, N.Y.While neither Gordy Sheer or Theresa Buckley are competing at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, both were able to offer their own perspective on the sport that's become near and dear to their hearts on a recent day at Blue Mountain.Sheer, director of marketing and sponsorship for USA Luge, has an extensive history in the sport.A three-time U.S. Olympian in the luge in 1992, 1994, and 1998, Sheer won silver in the doubles event at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.Sheer is currently in Sochi in support of the U.S. team.Team memberTheresa Buckley, 17, of Salisbury, is a Luge Junior National Development Team member.Ironically, Buckley happened upon the sport by chance after she saw a promotion for an upcoming USA Luge Challenge several years ago at Blue Mountain Ski Resort in Palmerton."The first weekend that they were here, we saw a flyer," Buckley said. "They saw that I was pretty good at it, I went to Placid, and I was selected for the Junior National Development Team in April 2009."Training for the competition requires strong mental and physical fitness, according to Buckley.It especially helps to have strong core muscles, Buckley said."There's a lot of pressure being put on you," she said. "It helps to do push-ups, pull-ups."Perhaps more than anyone else, Sheer knows the importance of the good, sound, fundamental training the sport requires."If you train hard, and have natural talent, good things will happen," he said. "You have to put in the work year round to win."The way the sport works is lugers compete against a timer and are timed to a thousandth of a second.Buckley, who resides in Placid, offered several words of advice."Stay calm and relax," she said. "The (objective) is that you make it down safe, and be faster than everyone else."Training luge runLuge sledding opened at Blue Mountain Ski Resort in Palmerton in 2012. In 2008, Blue Mountain hosted the USA Luge Challenge. Since then, it has served as a screening site for the United States Luge Association to identify future luge Olympians.The Blue Mountain luge track is the fourth luge track in the United States, and the only natural course on the East Coast.At Blue Mountain's Winterfest held earlier this month, Sheer said the USA Luge Challenge is an important program."It's something very unique," he said. "We don't have anything like this at any ski area in the U.S."How to get involvedThe USA Luge at Blue Mountain Ski Resort is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, individuals can choose a luge sled, snowtube, or mini-bobsled.As an official training and recruitment site of the USA Luge team, Blue Mountain offers lessons and practice runs.For more information, call 610-826-7700, or visit skibluemt.com.