Arriving from his pre-Games training camp in Saint Moritz, Switzerland last week, Alex is fine tuning his preparation. That all includes completing the track walk, systematic training and official training runs at Yanqing’s National Sliding Centre ahead of his first race day on Saturday 5 February.

After attending the test event to trial the track in November last year, Alex and his competitors have only a few days of training to dial in ahead of the Olympic competition.

“I’m going a lot better each day through track walks, systematic training and full training runs, so I’m feeling confident going into tomorrow,” the 26-year-old said.

“The main thing I’ve learned from the track walks and training are the profiles are shaped differently than what they were in November - the track seems to be flowing a bit easier, all the same steers just not as hard.

“The corners are very open, which feels completely different to all the other tracks in the world. Technically it’s a bit different, it’s more about timing my steers and I’m relying on a lot of visual cues, but it's working well.

“It's got a very interesting section down the bottom that I think will bring some great coverage for sure. It's going to be a lot of edge of your seat type action going into that fourth round.”

Heading into his third Olympic campaign, Alex is aiming for his best ever Games finish. With luge competition based on the combined times across four runs, consistency is key.

“I'm looking at putting together four runs that I'm proud of, first of all, that's the most important thing.

“Then where I’m at the end of the event of the competition, I'll be happy if I can put those clean rounds together. The way the season’s been progressing, I think a top-15 finish is a reasonable goal, and that's what I'll be trying to achieve.

“I’m feeling calm and collected, keeping those vibes up until the race. I’ll do a bit of sledwork this afternoon, then relax as much as possible ahead of the late evening race.

“I feel really good out there, I’m sliding consistently and just want to keep that up."

Alex was one of the first Australian athletes to arrive in Beijing with his competition kicking off on Saturday 5 February, the day after the Opening Ceremony.

“I’m settling in well, being here three days before my first session meant I could get over the jetlag and through that initial excitement of being at the Olympic Games.

“I’ve put my head down and been able to focus on training and getting ready to race.”

Catch Alex in heats one and two on Saturday night from 10:10pm AEDT on Channel 7 and 7plus.

Dominic Sullivan

#HaveAGo