Elon alum Bermuda's lone Winter Olympian

A 1997 Elon Communications graduate, Patrick Singleton, finished 37th Feb. 11 in the men's singles luge competition at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. He was representing his native Bermuda as its lone Olympian.

A financial reporter with Bloomberg Television in Tokyo, Singleton previously finished 27th at the 1998 Olympics in Nagano, Japan. He had to overcome adversity to compete in this year's Olympic Games. He rebounded from a neck and shoulder injury suffered during a collision with a cameraman who mistakenly stepped onto the luge track during World Cup qualifying last year in Nagano.

Singleton was the subject of worldwide media attention four years ago after he did an IBM commercial, filmed in Bermuda, for the Nagano Olympics. This year he was singled out during the telecast of the Opening Ceremonies by NBC host Katie Couric, who noted that Singleton was carrying his country's flag into the cold stadium wearing Bermuda shorts. A color photograph of Singleton competing in luge at Salt Lake City was featured prominently on the front page of the Financial Times.

Competing in his second Olympic Games, Singleton finished with a cumulative four-run time of 3:07.772. His cumulative time was 9.8 seconds off the pace set by gold medalist Armin Zoeggeler of Italy.

Singleton's two best runs came the final day of singles competition. His runs of 45.769 seconds and 46.298 seconds were more than 2 seconds faster than his second heat on Sunday.

His best career finishes have come in World Cup competition, where he finished third in the Nations Cup in LaPlagne, France in both 1997 and 1998. He also recorded a victory in the Calgary Olympic warm-up meet.