Tobogganing or bobsledding dates from the 16th century. It became established as a racing sport in Switzerland in about 1879 when a special luge run was created at Davos.
The name "bobsledding" came from early racers bobbing their heads backwards and forwards. It didn't work, but the name stayed with the sport.
The first ever bobsleigh track was built by St Moritz’s Palace Hotel owner Caspar Badrutt in 1870. It was subsequently used for two Winter Olympic games and is still in use today.
The name "bobsledding" came from early racers bobbing their heads backwards and forwards. It didn't work, but the name stayed with the sport.
The first ever bobsleigh track was built by St Moritz’s Palace Hotel owner Caspar Badrutt in 1870. It was subsequently used for two Winter Olympic games and is still in use today.
Until the 1950s, U. S. bobsledders were the best in the world, in part because of technological innovations. Bob and Bill Linney in the late 1930s built a two-man sled with a steel plank as the linkage. The plank's flexibility allowed much greater speed through turns.
Prince Albert formed Monaco's bobsleigh team in 1986, which debuted at the Calgary Olympics in 1988. In 2005 he competed in his fifth and final Winter Olympics in the four-man bobsleigh.
Bobsleigh and bobsledding are both correct names for the large sled made up of two sections linked together. The frame is made of metal, the shell of fiberglass or similar material. There are two sizes, two-man and four-man.
 |
| Pixiebay |
In the Olympics and other major competitions, the bobsled run is at least 1,500 meters (about 1,640 yards) long and it has about 15 or 20 turns. The average slope ranges between 8 and 15 percent.
Due to the high speeds while running a bobsleigh track, there have been 17 fatalities since 1933. The most recent fatality was in 2016, when a Swiss bobsledder died after crashing during a training run.
The fastest speed attained in a bobsled is 156 kilometers per hour (97 miles per hour), which was set by a four-man sled at the Whistler World Championships in 2019. The Whistler track is the fastest in the world, and as such most of the world speed records have been set there.
Though the 100-mile-per-hour barrier has yet to be broken, many believe that it can be under the right conditions, both of the ice as well as the push and drive of the team.
The 1993 sports comedy film Cool Runnings is loosely based on the true story of the Jamaica national bobsleigh team's debut in competition during the 1988 Winter Olympics. The real Jamaican bobsleigh team were actually soldiers and not sprinters.
Despite being portrayed as illegal in the film Cool Runnings, the addition of metal weights to the front of any bobsleigh is a perfectly legal way of increasing speed.
Sources http://www.edgate.com/wintergames/design/spotlight_sport/bbsled.htm, http://www.howitworksdaily.com/transport/top-five-facts-bobsleighs/
No comments:
Post a Comment