The U.S. luge team speeds down tracks at more than 70 miles an hour and yet they still want to go faster. Our Rachael Paradis has more on how Clarkson University is working to help the team score the gold medal at the next winter Olympics.

  To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.

Then come back here and refresh the page.

POTSDAM, N.Y. -- It's faster than most of us travel every day, but more than 70 miles an hour isn't enough for the U.S. luge team. So engineers at Clarkson University are designing them a new sled that could take the team to the top.

Douglas Bohl, CU Mechanical Engineering Professor, said, "Make the sled go faster so when they compete, their equipment will allow them to get down the track faster and they will win medals at the Olympics."

Getting that faster sled is easier said than done. Bohl works with this computer software that helps him digitally shape and make changes to the sled, which is then tested in this wind tunnel.

Bohl said, "Put the two of them together and they tell us a direction, a way we want to go. Maybe we want to add a little bit here or take a little bit away from the front."

When designing a sled, the goal is to make it more aerodynamic as every second counts going down the hill.

Gordy Sheer, U.S. Luge Marketing Director, said, "Luge is a sport that is timed in the thousandths of a second. Any advantage that you get is significant. We might be able to find half of a tenth of a second and in the world of luge, that's a big deal."

It's something the U.S. luge team needs. In the past, the U.S. has not taken home many metals from the sport.

Bohl said, "Hopefully help them succeed where they've not succeeded in the past. We can make the equipment better to give the athletes a better chance to perform."

Bohl is confident the U.S. will be faster next time when they hit the track in 2014 for the winter Olympics in Russia.