Confidence is creeping into the Team Taiwan camp after the horror of finishing last in the luge.
A new bobsled and a television NBC documentary about the nation's Olympians has given the team a boost, ahead of its sporting trials in the competition.
The only problem appears to be getting out of bed.
After Tuesday's luge results, good news was sorely needed.
Technically, Lin Chuei-pin (林垂賓) and Lee Chia-hsun (李佳訓) came in 47th and 48th respectively in the 50-man competition.
But Martins Rubenis of Latvia didn't score and Lee Chang-yong of South Korea failed to finish.
Taiwan was 28 seconds off the pace after three runs, which is a lifetime in terms of an event where the difference between first and second place was one third of a second.
"The sad thing about the luge team is that due to their lack of experience on this ice it has been extremely difficult," said coach Sam Huang (黃柳宗).
It was a different story for the bobsled team, however, who have been attracting publicity in the US.
Their rescue by truckers Steve "Bam Bam" Lynch and the "Texas Outlaw" on the road to Salt Lake City got radio time and their quest for a bobsled caught the attention of national broadcaster NBC.
On Monday, they were supposed to get up early for the shoot. It was luge team coach and spokesman Sam Huang's job to wake the team.
"It's 5:45am and I am calling the guys to make sure they are getting up, the phone rings and rings and rings ... but no answer," Huang wrote in an e-mail. "Our big day and they are sleeping like logs!"
Eventually the call is answered and the bobsledders pop down to McDonald's for breakfast in the Olympic Village.
Before Monday, three-time Olympian Chen Chin-san (陳金山) still hadn't seen the new bobsled, which was loaned to the team by Granite High School in Salt Lake City.
On arrival at the school -- which the team has dubbed "Taipei Area 51" -- they were met by a phalanx of cameras and journalists.
"The reporters from NBC are there, I can see the reflection of their camera lenses focused on our team like snipers," Huang said. "The team and I walk through the hallway and into the shop. For a second, it seems like we are walking in slow motion, each foot step echoing through the halls of Granite High."
It turned out to be an emotional meeting of man and bobsled for team pilot Chen.
"Chen put his hand on the sled and slid his palm across it, he leant down and looked across the cowl of the bobsled," Huang said.
"It was like he was whispering to the sled and having a moment with the lady of destiny that will carry him and his teammates down the 15 turns [of the bobsled run] safely."
Afterwards they started work on the sled, sanding it down, before completing their interview with NBC.
The team was so pleased with the sled and attention of the TV cameras, that Huang said, "They were like a bunch of zombies. Forget Cool Runnings, Ang Lee (李安) will make the next blockbuster hit: Zombie Bobsledders."
An overcome Chen told NBC, "This is our first brand new sled [since he first competed at the Olympics in 1984]. We have been using other people's left overs for years."
"When we saw the sled, it was unbelievable that a group of kids in high school could do this.
"We come to a foreign land, truckers are helping us, the state of Utah has helped us, people we don't even know have helped us," Chen said.



