They are grown men wearing matching skintight racing suits who lay flat on their backs while sharing a little sled for 80 mph trips down ice-covered mountainside chutes for a living. They don't get rich by doing this, the risk rarely matches the reward and the visual of one man atop of another has long been fodder for lowbrow attempts at humor.
They are America's best hope in doubles luge, an event that seems to get noticed only when the Olympics roll around. Mortensen and Terdiman will spend about two minutes on the track during the competition, two minutes that will serve as the culmination of a four-year preparation process that was often not easy.