Winter Athlete Profile (8 of 25)- Martins Dukurs of Latvia

Martins Dukurs, 25, of the former Soviet republic of Latvia, a small country in the Baltic region, is winning the men's skeleton competition so far.

Latvia's capital city of Riga is perhaps the population size of Omaha, Neb. (ok that would need verification!), and he is among Latvia's top atheletes at the games. Both the men's and women's skeleton races were aired circa 2 a.m. last night on NBC, and I did actually watch the coverage!

According to the AP, Dukurs has a chance to add to an almost perfect season with a gold medal in Vancouver. The final runs are scheduled for today (Friday- perhaps, they have already happened, but we can't confirm or deny that).

Dukurs' sled was designed by his father. His older brother Tomass Dukurs, who finised 21st at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City is also competing for Latvia in Canada.

The younger Dukurs is .26 seconds ahead of second place finisher Jon Montgomery of Canada, while Russian Alexander Tretyakov is in third just .84 seconds behind the Latvian skeleton racer.

American Zach Lund, who is in 8th place in the skeleton competition, told the AP that Lukurs will be hard to top:

"It's like when I was No. 1 in the world," Lund said. "Once you know you can win, your confidence is through the roof."

But, Dukurs told the same media outlet that he is being cautios:

"It's only a three-tenths of a second lead," Dukurs said. "I'm on Montgomery's track. In skeleton, five-tenths is nothing. In skeleton, anything can happen."