How a boy from the tropics became an athlete for a winter sport

Alex Ferlazzo is Australia's most successful athlete in one of the world's most dangerous sports.

The Townsville local is the country's top luge competitor and he's spent his off-season training in the tropical heat for a shot at Olympic glory.

Ferlazzo first discovered the sport at age 15 after a chance encounter between his mum Michelle and a former luger. 

After that, it was game on for the boy from the tropics who became obsessed with a winter sport. 

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"We got a sled sent to Townsville from Latvia," he said.

"We made a wheeled contraption to go underneath and we used to take it up to Mount Stuart.

"We'd get my mum at the bottom of the road, sort of stopping cars, no helmet, no leathers. 

"It was kind of silly, to be honest."

Alex plays things a little safer these days, training on the track instead of the mountain.

He spends half his year training in cold countries and the other at home.

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