Doug Bateman was a three-sport athlete at Bridgewater-Raritan High School while growing up in Raritan, New Jersey. He attended Washington & Jefferson College, where he played football, and graduated with a degree in economics in 1977. At the time of the 1984 Winter Olympics, Bateman was an insurance agent. He slid doubles with Ron Rossi and in 1983 the two finished sixth in the Grosser Preis event in Igls, Austria, the best finish to that time by an American doubles luge team. They were the 1983 North American doubles champions. Bateman later became an executive with USA Luge, serving as President in 1998-2002, and re-elected in 2006 to serve until 2014.