It's the abrasive that will win the medal in Sochi.

"The abrasive will go along and put the right kind of form and shape on the edge to make it the best for them," said Brad Johnson, vice president for Saint-Gobain.

The sandpaper Saint-Gobain provides is used to polish the runners in the sleds for the USA Luge Team, to make them go faster. The company is located in Watervliet.

"They're a great partner for us. The luge athletes are great people," Johnson said.

The partnership started more than 30 years ago. Three-time luge Olympian and silver medalist Gordy Sheer remembers it well.

"Since my retirement from the sport, the company has really stepped up to the plate in terms of providing us with the right materials for our runners," Sheer said.

The company became the team's primary financial sponsor in 2009. But the athletes needed better technology to help them go faster on the tracks. A few years ago, Saint-Gobain engineers came up with a different composition of steel.

"U.S. Steel would actually make the steel and then the steel bars would come back and they would be made into the sled," Johnson said.

"Before we were buying material from the Austrian team," Sheer told NewsChannel 13. "That's problematic because they don't want to necessarily give us their best stuff."

Sheer said the new steel along with the company's abrasives have already made a difference in international competitions. The USA Luge Team has never won a gold medal in the Olympics. This could be the year. They're going into the competition in Sochi feeling they're now on the leading edge of technology.

"We have a lot more confidence and really look forward to being able to perform at our very best in Sochi," Sheer said.