TURIN -- Luge and Canada are seldom mentioned in the same sentence. And it'll still be awhile before they're in the same headline.
Regan Lauscher took another small slide to her dream of making it happen in Vancouver 2010. But she stepped off the track feeling like it's one of those so-close and so-far away things.
The slider from Red Deer, 12th in the women's singles four years ago in Salt Lake, finished 10th yesterday.
"I'm definitely happy with that," she said.
"Top 10 was my goal. I knew it would be tough to get much closer to the medals than that here. But I wanted to show progress."
Lauscher, who last year became a part of, er, Canadian luge history when she became the first Canadian to win a silver medal in the 28-year history of luge World Cup races, wanted to match Marie-Claude Doyen's Canadian Olympic best, an eighth place at the Calgary 1988 Olympics.
"I wanted four consistent runs and, for the most part, I was able to do that," she said.
It didn't help to see teammate Meaghan Simister of Calgary taken off on a backboard after slamming into the roof on Curve 17. Simister was ejected from her sled, sliding down the track behind the sled, before being taken away in an ambulance.
Lauscher said it was a test to not let that bother her.
"You hate to see a teammate get hurt but you have to block it out and focus on yourself and what you have to do to get down the track. This is a very difficult and challenging track."