LAKE PLACID, N.Y. - Astronaut Dr. Scott Parazynski is the first Honorary Team Captain named by the United States Luge Team and will accompany the athletes to the Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver.
Additional Honorary Team Captains will be announced over the coming week with a conference call scheduled for Feb. 3 at a time to be determined.
Dr. Parazynski is a veteran of five Space Shuttle missions and seven spacewalks. He was then-Sen. John Glenn's physician on the 1998 Space Shuttle Discovery when Glenn, at 77, became the oldest man to ever enter space.
Over his career, Dr. Parazynski became the only person to ever walk in space and climb Mount Everest.
He was educated at Stanford and hails from Palo Alto, Calif. and Evergreen, Colo.
In his competitive days, Dr. Parazynski was a member of the U.S. Luge Development Team and was ranked in the top 10 at the 1988 Winter Olympic Trials. Although he did not compete in those Calgary events, the tall, blonde-haired former luge racer coached the Phillipine Olympic Luge Team.
The U.S. Olympians will arrive at the Whistler Sliding Center on Feb. 9 for a track walk, which will conclude at 3 pm. A press conference is slated with the singles sliders on Feb. 9 at 5 pm at the Whistler Press Center. A doubles press conference will take place on Feb. 11 at 7 pm in the same location.