Dancing Olympic Luger Draws Earnest Criticism From NBC Commentator

Before she throws herself down in an icy tunnel at nearly 90 mph, American luger Kate Hansen warms up by dancing like no one's watching.

She puts on her headphones, dances around, and then gets ready to race.

NBC's luge commentator Duncan Kennedy does not approve, but not for the reason you'd think. Kennedy thinks that the dancing doesn't prepare the proper muscles. Here's what he said during the broadcast on NBC Sports Network today:

"I would like to see something a little more sport-specific from her. What you see out of the top runners, the real heavy-hitters, is they're working the start muscles. They're working the low back. They're working the arms and shoulders, and getting the power out of them because the start has to be a powerful, explosive movement. And while [Hansen's] may be a very good general warmup, I'm not sure it gets the job done to medal contention."

This seems like a bit of reach. There's no reason that dancing like wild prevents Hansen from, say, stretching.

Here she is before today's luge training runs. The security guards are blown away: