U.S. luger Kate Hansen's pre-race ritual: Dancing to Beyonce
Kate Hansen's sport may be luge but she also has an Olympic-sized dance routine.
NBC cameras and a Getty photographer
captured the young American luger doing her pre-slide routine: dancing while
listening to music on her headphones.
"Strictly Beyonce," Hansen told a reporter. "My girl Bey! She just gets me fierce and I get stoked. I've got good mojo on, so it's how I roll."
On Monday, she rolled to a 10th place finish after the first two runs of the women's luge competition. Teammate Erin Hamlin finished third.
Hansen's diva routine has clearly rubbed off on her teammates, as evidenced by this photo she posted to Twitter:
Russia pulls the inner diva outta the #usaluge team @erinhamlin @mazdzer pic.twitter.com/PMszOEHKC3
— Kate Hansen (@k8ertotz) February 5, 2014
Back at home in Southern California, they're taking notice as well. Turns out Hansen - from La Canada, Calif., a student at Brigham Young and America's first winner of a World Cup singles race this season since 1997 - is on a billboard wishing her luck at the Sochi Games.
"Apparently, the Olympics are a pretty big deal because someone put up a billboard of me," Hansen says. "And I've never been on a billboard. That doesn't happen."
Clearly, it does. And to use one of her go-to words, she's pretty stoked about it.