How the heck does Olympic luge team relay work?

Welcome to FTW Explains, a guide to catching up on and better understanding stuff going on in the world. You may have heard about an event at the 2018 Winter Olympics called Luge Team Relay and wondered how the heck a relay race works with luging. We're here to help.

Really? There's a relay race involved in luge?

Yeah!

And it's not dangerous?

Well, I mean, luge in general is dangerous but trust me, it's not a relay race in the way you think of in, say, swimming or speed skating.

Okay, I'm listening.

It's all about the touchpad! From NBC's Olympics site:

The competition starts with the women's singles sled. At the finish, she hits an overhead touchpad, which opens the start gate for the men's…