Augsburg Eiskanal
The Augsburg ice track is a wild water system in the Augsburg district and fashioning was built for the canoe slalom competitions of the 1972 Summer Olympics.
Description
The start of construction on old Augsburger ice channel was on 20 July 1970. The ice track was originally used as a bypass channel for drift, so this did not damage the turbines of the waterworks at high drain in winter. The channel was converted into a construction period of 10 months in a wild water system. On August 22, 1971 was held as a test run for the upcoming Olympic Games, the first international competition. The ice channel was the world's first artificial canoe slalom stadium. It offers grandstands for 24,000 spectators and is fed by Lech water that is diverted above the high- indulgences. The track bifurcates into a pure slalom course and a whitewater course. The whitewater course opens at the target in the Lech, the slalom course does not flow to its destination on towards downtown. This arm is called capital stream and goes up to 35 m³ / s of water, which accounts for the short distance through the old water plant to the line 17 m³ / s on the Neubach. The capital Bach existed long before 1972, it branches near the Schwaben Center, where he is also used for water sports, at the Friedberger Straße and supplies the power plants of the Augsburg industry with water. The Olympic track had a length of 660 m and a width of 10 m, the discharge is 10 m³ / s
In connection with the Olympic events there was also the National Training Centre for canoe slalom and white water. The ice track is now run jointly by Kanu Schwaben Augsburg, a department of TSV Schwaben Augsburg, Augsburg and the Kayak Club.
Route
The Olympic course for canoe slalom for decades scale and role model in the design of new routes. The track basically consists of three different power routes: the children of distance, the youth channel and the World Cup course. The ice channel offers an equally demanding and varied whitewater with steps, rolls and eddies (difficulty WW IV).
The advantage of the ice channel is that there are excellent training opportunities on the basis of barrages at any water level. During the winter months, however, the World Cup course is closed. Other advantages are the slippery floor and the rounded internals; so that the risk of injury for the athletes is low. Unlike modern whitewater facilities such as canoe Markkleeberg the range comes without electrically operated pumps and therefore has low operating costs, however, the line utilization on the water level of the Lech and ultimately by the release of water Forggensee depends.
Sports competitions
Among the discharged here sporting competitions in addition to numerous national decisions are to be mentioned, among other things:
In addition, the ice channel is regularly Station in the World Cup cycle of the International Canoe Federation.
Trivia
Since canoe slalom in 1972 for the first time was an Olympic sport, it was first possible in advance to secure funding for the construction of an artificial route for this sport. By then, new construction, the Federal Republic also promised a home advantage for their athletes who were able to use the track as opposed to their opponents intensively for training purposes. To break this, built the GDR in Cainsdorf a distance with similar characteristics for the preparation of their athletes. In fact, the East German canoeists were finally able to win all four competitions. Location of the DDR channel at Cainsdorf: 50 ° 40 ' 53 " N, 12 ° 30 ' 8" O50.68135112.502098