Canadian national luge team members Jeff Christie, left, and Regan Lauscher, right, toboggan down a hill in Calgary on Tuesday. (Jeff McIntosh/Canadian Press)

Sporting helmets that said "for sale," Canada's national luge team tobogganed down a Calgary hill Tuesday in a publicity stunt to land a sponsor.

"The Canadian luge team is officially for sale. We haven't had a national sponsor pretty much since I started luging. That was 14 years ago," Canadian athlete Jeff Christie said.

It would cost a sponsor about $250,000 a year to put its stamp on the national team, Tim Farstad of the Canadian Luge Association said.

That kind of exposure could reap rewards for a Canadian company, and for the athletes who stand to medal in the 2010 Olympics.

"In a sport like luge, equipment has a lot to do with it: research, testing, wind-tunnel testing, aerodynamics specialists, everything," luger Regan Lauscher said.

"It all adds up in those thousandths of a second that separate the German team, who are on the podium all the time, to us, who are breaking in there every now and then getting a medal."

'Especially if you are looking for that one big sponsor, it's likely not too realistic in this environment.'—Dale Henwood, Canadian Sport Centre

But the economy is not working in the team's favour. More high-profile sports like speedskating are already seeing their training dollars shrink, and endowments that keep training facilities open are dwindling.

"If you are just looking for someone today, it's going to be difficult to find someone. Especially if you are looking for that one big sponsor, it's likely not too realistic in this environment," said Dale Henwood, president of the Canadian Sport Centre.

The odds did not deter the luge team, which trains at Calgary's Canada Olympic Park, as they tobogganed down a hill several times as part of a snowy news conference on Tuesday.

"The very start of my career was on a tobogganing hill, and I think people can probably relate a lot more to luge than they think," Lauscher said.

The athletes were also drumming up interest in the Luge World Cup circuit, which has races slated for this weekend in Calgary and next weekend in Whistler, B.C.