Duncan Kennedy

Duncan Kennedy competed in luge three times at the Olympic Games and slid on the World Cup circuit from over 15 years. He was the first American to win a luge World Cup event, which occurred at Sigulda, Latvia (then Soviet Union), in early 1991. Twice he finished second in the season World Cup, 1991-92 and 1993-94. Kennedy was also the first American to win two international medals, winning a silver at the 1982 Grosser Preis Trophy in Austria, and taking a bronze in the same event in 1983. Kennedy retired in 1979 after some falls were found to have caused bleeding around his brain stem. He serves occasionally as a television commentator for luge in the United States.

In late 1993, Kennedy assisted his teammate Robert Pipkins and came to his defense, after right-wing youths had attacked Pipkins, an African-American, helping take Pipkins to safety. The Security Committee of the United States Olympic Committee then proclaimed events in Germany generally as “dangerous.” This federal case was managed only by a personal apology from the Mayor of Oberhof to U.S. President Bill Clinton, and the youths were sentenced to drastic prison penalties.