As a Briton, the late Adam Rosen was a rarity in winter sports – one of the reasons why his hearts flew to him in the ice track circus. For him it was always only about one thing: speed.
The grief in Great Britain, which is otherwise neither known nor to be enthusiastic about winter sports, was great on Monday. Adam Rosen, a three-time Olympic toboggan runner for the UK, died at the age of 37 of complications from cancer.
Instead of listing the sporting successes of the exotic in the ice channel in the condolences, all the bereaved relatives emphasized the human size and warmth of the former Olympian. “AJ (his nickname, editor’s note) was not only one of the greatest British luge Olympians, but also the friendliest and most down-to-earth person you could wish to meet,” tweeted the British Olympic team.
Youthful enthusiasm drove roses into the ice channel
He owes that Rosen was able to compete for Great Britain at all, thanks to his mother. Because the sports star was born in the US state of New York. However, due to his maternal origin, he was also a British citizen from birth. The family’s attachment to the kingdom is already reflected in the choice of its name. AJ was named after his British grandfather – a world war hero.
The way to tobogganing was by no means mapped out. Rather, it was a mixture of youthful enthusiasm and recklessness that drove roses into the ice channel for the first time after the 1994 Winter Olympics. The airplane enthusiast and amateur pilot found another way to indulge in the intoxication of speed in luge.
What would have remained a phase for many young people became a passion for Rosen. For his dream of an Olympic medal in the ice channel, he even turned down the offer to study aeronautics at a university. The niche hobby tobogganing had actually prevailed against the love of flying.
Even after his career, Rosen stayed with the sport
From 2003 onwards, Rosen invested all his energy in tobogganing, took part in the Winter Olympics in 2006, 2010 and 2018 – and still found the time to make a name for himself as an entrepreneur in the music industry. Despite the solid economic foothold, however, he never thought of hanging up the sled. Not even when he dislocated his hip just a few months before the 2010 Olympics and suffered severe nerve injuries.
He also spread his irrepressible passion for tobogganing as a commentator on British TV – with his friend, bobsleigh driver John Jackson, always with a joke on his neck.
With roses, winter sports – and luge in particular – lose a passionate ambassador. But what will be missing most of all, as British Olympic Committee Chairman Andy Anson put it, is his engaging smile and warm personality.
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