The long off-season is over and the Olympic season is about to begin. The Eberspacher World Cup luge tour gets underway Nov. 19 to 21 at the Yanqing National Sliding Center in China.

The new track near Beijing, the site of February’s Winter Olympics, has had the attention of the world’s fastest sliders since the first week of November. The pandemic delayed the circuit’s appearance on the new course until this month. Though the World Cup is just commencing, in three months, the Olympic luge races will be over.

Nine World Cup weekends will precede the 2022 Olympic Winter Games, with USA Luge nominating its Olympic team after the seventh race in Sigulda, Latvia, which is slated for Jan. 8 to 9, 2022. The process starts at the Olympic site in just a matter of days.

“The track is very unique,” two-time Olympian Tucker West said in a statement. “It has been a much steeper learning curve than anyone had anticipated coming in. Each day gets better and better though as we figure out the correct driving lines down the track. The World Cup race is coming up quickly so we are trying to put finishing touches on (driving) lines while also trying to find the speed.”

The track has shallower curve angles, uphill sections which create negative G-forces, a 16-curve layout with some very long radius turns, a 360-degree loop, and speeds expected to exceed 80 miles per hour.

“The area we’re in is amazing,” said Ashley Farquharson, an athlete seeking her first Olympic berth. “I love how close to the mountains we are and how the sunrises and sunsets are always lovely.

“The track is very different than most others and requires a different approach,” she added. “But we’re chipping away at it and it’s coming along nicely.”

“The track is definitely different from any other in the world,” added Jayson Terdiman, who will try to qualify for his third games with his third doubles partner, Chris Mazdzer. “The way it’s built, and shaped, it’s really hard to compare it to anything I’ve slid on before. For me, the biggest difference has been the lack of pressure in corners, making it difficult to feel exactly where we are (high or low) when exiting curves.

“Outside of sliding, the Beijing area is absolutely gorgeous,” he added. “The mountains in this region are breathtaking.”

After only competing in the second half of last year because of the pandemic, the Americans will have a full schedule this year. The travel schedule is busy — there are no breaks the remainder of the season other than a few days at home around the holidays in December.

The 13 U.S. athletes are part of the collection of 141 sleds from 27 nations totaling 170 racers that have been training in Yanqing for nearly two weeks. The collection includes Germany’s Natalie Geisenberger and Felix Loch, who are defending World Cup overall champions, along with Austrian World Cup doubles defenders Thomas Steu and Lorenz Koeller.

The American athletes include three men, four women and three doubles teams, led by Mazdzer, the 2018 Olympic silver medalist and Saranac Lake native. The three-time Olympian hopes to qualify in singles and doubles, despite suffering a broken foot in late September. He and doubles partner Terdiman are also working with new equipment in addition to learning this new course.

Given that this is the lone pre-Olympic training for everyone prior to February, there is the double agenda of not only learning a new run, but adapting equipment and sled set-ups to this layout.

For the U.S., the evolution of its technical programs has redoubled over the past eight years, thanks to the involvement of team sponsors collaborating with the coaching staff year-round to create the fastest sleds possible.

“One thing that has kept our spirits high is that the new sled, even with our rough runs and mistakes, seems to have a lot of speed,” Terdiman said. “It appears that Andre (Florscheutz, German Olympic medalist and USA Luge technology consultant) has once again delivered what was promised. And I know we will get full confirmation of that once we get a few more runs under our belts and especially on tracks we already know.”

The new sleds will have to wait until after Beijing, when the World Cup moves to Sochi for two weeks, replacing the events that were moved from Whistler and Lake Placid.

USA Luge has brought three doubles teams to China. In addition to Mazdzer/Terdiman, the team will enter Dana Kellogg with Duncan Segger, as well as the new duo of Zack DiGregorio and Sean Hollander, provided DiGregorio recovers in time from an injury.

“The structure of the track is incredible and very modern. It is extremely spectator friendly and I can’t wait to get back to racing,” DiGregorio said.

“The new track here in Beijing is really like no other track we have been to before,” Hollander said. “There is very little pressure in the curves so it can be hard to figure out where you are to drive. It definitely keeps you on your toes and you have to be on the ball from top to bottom.”

Four U.S. women will hit the ice with Summer Britcher, the team’s winningest singles slider of all time; Emily Sweeney, a 2019 World Championship bronze medalist; Farquharson and Brittney Arndt. Britcher was a member of the 2014 and 2018 Olympic teams; Sweeney competed in 2018; Arndt and Farquharson are both looking to make their first Olympic nomination.

Mazdzer, West and Jonny Gustafson comprise the men’s squad, with the latter athlete eyeing his first Olympic team.

Racing will get underway with Nations Cup qualifying Friday morning in Beijing or Thursday at 8 p.m. in the US. The weekend action will feature men’s and women’s singles, doubles and the team relay. Saturday doubles and men’s singles start at 3:30 a.m., while the women’s race and team relay begin at 5 a.m. on Sunday.

All World Cup competitions will be live-streamed this winter, courtesy of JFM Sports of Lake Placid, on olympicchannel.com with luge broadcast veteran Tim Singer calling the action. Singer will be joined by a group of former luge athletes who will provide color commentary for the live streams.