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West had a combined time of 1:46.108 for his two runs. He was 21st out of 39 lugers after the first run, with a time of 53.142 seconds. His second run came in at 52.966 seconds. He is 1.959 seconds behind the leader.
The third and fourth luge runs will be Sunday to decide the gold, silver and bronze medalists. Those races are scheduled to begin at 9:30 and 11:30 a.m. Sunday.
Felix Loch of Germany, the defending Olympic champion, is in first after two runs, with a combined time of 1:44.149. Russia's Albert Demchenko, who won silver in 2006, is in second with at 1:44.443. Italy's Armin Zoeggeler is third at 1:44.893.
Americans Christopher Mazdzer is in 13th with a time of 1:45.387 and Aidan Kelly is in 26th at 1:46.467.
Ridgefield fans have banded together as Team Tucker to cheer on their hometown athlete, putting up signs around town and wearing Team Tucker T-shirts. Follow them on Facebook here.
West learned to luge in a backyard run his father, Brett West, built after the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.
“Our blood, sweat and tears are in that thing,’’ Tucker told NBCOlympics.com. “We both worked on it together every night in his [Brett's] workshop. It was a bonding moment for us, our pride and joy.” It includes a weather station, a flag with Olympic rings, electronic timing and a PA system. There is also an automatic icing system that is activated from the basement of the family home.
In the Sochi Games, teams will compete for the first time in a relay competition. This will consist of teams from each country: A woman (singles luge), a man (singles luge) and two men from the doubles luge. The fastest competitor in the men's luge event will take part in the relay for the United States.
Full Olympic luge results can be found here. The luge event can be watched on a live stream from NBC Sports here and USA Luge here.
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