FIL family mourns Dmitry Feld

Lake Placid (FIL/11 Jan 2024) On January 10, 2024, the FIL family suffered a great loss. Dmitry Feld, who worked for almost forty years as a coach and marketing manager for USA Luge, died of leukemia. The 68-year-old died in a hospital in Burlington, Vermont.

The former luge athlete and coach fell ill during the Christmas holidays. The leukemia, which had been in remission for several years, returned.

"We are all in shock right now. May this wonderful man rest in peace.  Please keep his wife Linda and son Dima in your thoughts and prayers," said USA Luge CEO Jim Leahy.

Dmitry Feld served as USA Luge's Marketing Manager since 2000. Prior to that, he worked for years as a coach and communicator.

Born in the former Soviet Union, Feld spent part of his youth in Lithuania before his family settled in Ukraine. After a brief stint coaching in the Soviet Union, he moved to New York in 1979. In 1984, he moved to Lake Placid, New York, at the request of USA Luge and remained there. He worked briefly for USA Bobsled and Skeleton, but has spent most of the last 40 years in luge.

"Any friend of luge," Feld told the AP in 2018, "is a friend of mine." Feld has been extremely active, raising money to send supplies to war-torn Ukraine - he even led an effort to fly Ukrainian flags in downtown Lake Placid last spring.

"If people were one-third as good as Dmitry, the world would have no problems," said Gordy Sheer, marketing director for USA Luge.

FIL President Einars Fogelis was certainly shocked: "We just met Dmitry at the World Cup in Lake Placid. My heartfelt condolences to USA Luge and deepest sympathy to his wife and son. We will always remember an extraordinary personality in the FIL family. We will have fond memories of Dmitry Feld and will never forget the dedication and support of this exceptional man.”