[TheForge] Olympic steel

[Walter Mullett]

I was just watching NBC's Matt Lauer do an interview with someone on
technical improvements and their impact on the Olympics.  One of the things
he showed was a luge runner.  He said it was made of a secret alloy called
austenite and that it instantly got harder when it toughed the ice and that
by the time the luge got to the bottom of the hill, it was a different
material.
 
Obviously an over-simplification.  As I understand it, true austenite is
only stable at very high temperatures and that nickel and manganese have to
be added to make it stable at normal temperatures.  Is this material
different and stable at low temperatures.  What would be the advantage of
that?
 
Walt