There’s a house for sale in Ridgefield, Conn., that boasts five bedrooms, six bathrooms, plenty of play room for the kids — and, oh, an Olympic-sized luge track.
“It’s the only private, backyard luge track in the world and it is one of only four [publicly used] luge tracks in the country,” said Brett West, who is listing his winter wonderland for $3.5 million.
At 485 feet long, the backyard track has a vertical drop of 38 feet and generates a top speed of around 37 miles per hour. It’s made, in part, of wood and comes with an automatic icer.
West, an eccentric entrepreneur and owner of his own private equity firm, built the luge track for his kids after watching the sport on television with his then-6-year-old son, Tucker, during the 2002 Winter Olympics.
“Tucker has been sliding all winter ever since — all the way to the Olympics,” West said.
At 18, Tucker was the youngest member of the US Olympic luge team when he took part in the Sochi winter games in 2014.
“Just getting on the team at that age was a huge accomplishment,” West said.
Now a 22-year-old Union College student in Schenectady, the national champion slider is getting ready for this year’s Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea.
He is currently in Innsbruck, Austria, participating in the first World Cup of the season.
During the 2014 Winter Olympics, West gave an interview on the “Today” show, encouraging young women to reach out to his “shy” and “single” son, and they did.
“Tucker was texting me right before his first Olympic run in Sochi, asking what I said on the ‘Today’ show. I told him not to worry and to focus on his run!” West said, adding that Tucker is now seriously dating another member of the US Olympic luge team, Rachel Germaine.