Representing his native Bermuda as its lone Olympian, Patrick Singleton, a 1997 Elon graduate, finished 37th Monday in the men's singles luge competition at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Details...
Competing in his second Olympic Games, Singleton finished with a cumulative four-run time of 3:07.772. His cumulative time was 9.8 seconds off the pace set by gold medalist Armin Zoeggeler of Italy.
Singleton’s two best runs came Monday, Feb. 11, the final day of singles competition. His runs of 45.769 seconds and 46.298 seconds were more than 2 seconds faster than his second heat on Sunday.
A financial reporter with Bloomberg Television in Tokyo, Singleton finished 27th at the 1998 Olympics in Nagano, Japan. He rebounded from a neck and shoulder injury, suffered during a collision with a cameraman who mistakenly stepped onto the luge track during World Cup qualifying last year in Nagano, to qualify for the Salt Lake City games.
His best finishes came in World Cup competition, where he finished third in the Nations Cup in LaPlagne, France in both 1997 and 1998. He also recorded a victory in the Calgary Olympic warm-up meet.
Singleton was the subject of worldwide media attention after he did an IBM commercial, filmed in Bermuda, for the Nagano Olympics.
This year he was singled out during the telecast of the Opening Ceremonies by NBC host Katie Couric, who noted that Singleton was carrying his country’s flag in the cold stadium wearing walking shorts.
Singleton also made the front page of the weekend edition of the Financial Times, a London newspaper. FT featured a color, three-column Associated Press photo of Singleton at the end of a practice run.