Bobsleigh

The Bobsleigh is a winter sport which was developed in the late 19th century in Switzerland of British and today is part of the Olympic program at the Olympic Winter Games. The Bobsleigh is also closely related to the luge and still more with the Skeleton.

Etymology

The term "Bob" comes ' ( German: ' bobbing ') from the verb, to bob. At the beginning of Bobsportes tried to give Bob more momentum and thus speed the teams after the start by leaning back and then common, jerky rash of the upper body. In German, this acceleration technique was then called bobbed.

History

1888 developed in Andreas Berg an Englishman Bob by consecutively mounted two slides under a board. The front section of cables was controllable. The races were then discharged only be played on natural toboggan runs, so on forest trails, which were mainly used for timber transport ( also on slide ) is applied.

1901 built Carl Benzing ( 1869-1955 ) in the Thuringian spa town of Friedrichroda Swiss model with a Stahlbob steering. The named him Black Peter open Fünferbob is considered the first "proper " German Bob and made Friedrichroda with a few years later built a spit mountain railway to the cradle of the German bobsleigh. Probably the first German bobsleigh race with ten Bobs took place on the Red Trail at Friedrichroda in winter 1901/ 02.

In Germany the Bobsleigh and Luge Federation of Germany was founded in 1911. The International Bobsleigh is organized since 1923 in the Fédération Internationale de Bobsleigh et de Tobogganing ( FIBT ). Since 1924 there are competitions at the Olympic Winter Games and World Championships. At the Olympic Winter Games in 1924 and 1928, five drivers in Bob were allowed.

Today the Sportbobs used are disguised aerodynamic and the front-runner by a cable ( steering cables ) be steered. The regulations of the FIBT includes three disciplines: Two- Women, Two Men and Four- men (the latter often simply " the four-man " called ). This two-man bob must have a minimum curb weight of 170 kg, 210 kg four-man bob. The maximum weight of crew and possibly ballast is 340 kg for the two-man bob women, 390 kg for the men and 630 kg for four-man bob.

2006, the 14 mm wide runners was newly regulated by the FIBT: It may only be used more runners that can produce at a manufacturer of a single type of rustproof stainless steel, the FIBT and sells itself. The slightly curved longitudinal profile, also known as jump the material structure must, rule- compliant still worked, but not be changed. The runners track width is fixed at 67 cm. The (minimum) width of the hood is for four-man bob 70 cm, for two-man bob front 68 cm, in the middle 64 cm and 54 cm behind. 4 lateral deflectors are wider with at least 80 to at most 87 cm. Also, suspension, axles and their distance, joints, rotation angle, construction methods, computational brakes are precisely specified.

The railway

In the early days of the bobsleigh riders without helmets drove still mostly on steep forest trails, which were limited only to the left and right of heavy snow bands. Accidents borne out of the corners Bob and fractures were not uncommon. With the increasing popularity of the sport in the first decade of the 20th century created numerous planned -scale natural ice rinks with artificial gangs and developed curves. Path lengths of up to 2,500 meters at the time were common. Today, only very few natural ice rinks in operation, the trips are mostly in bobsleigh held at artificial, from 1200 to 1600 meter long iced tracks.

The number of bobsleigh runs is very low worldwide. Four of them are in Germany: Winter, Koenigssee (first artificial ice rink in the world) in the same district of the municipality and the alleged Schönau most difficult track in the world in Altenberg. On the luge track in Oberhof find any international bobsleigh competitions are held longer.

Almost all now have artificial ice bob runs in a concrete channel. The only natural ice bob run, driven on the World Cup races, is located in St. Moritz. On this in 1928 and 1948, the bobsled race of the Olympic Winter Games were held.

Technology and physical conditions

Bob reach speeds of well over 100 km / h in some cases even 150 km / h, for example, on the Whistler Sliding Centre at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. In the banked corners and chicanes, the acceleration may briefly reach 5 g ( five times the acceleration due to gravity ). This places enormous demands on the crew. The pilot must have an extremely good reactions, an excellent " track feel" and well-developed fine motor skills. Even the smallest steering movements in the wrong place can cause a rollover in the worst case. The differences between the top teams be sometimes even after four cycles in addition often only a few hundredths or thousandths of a second. Often the decision about the placement falls already in the seed and start-up phase over the first 50 meters. The starting zone is about 15 feet long. To a few hundredths worse start times typically cause a loss of some tenths of a second at the finish and a few pilots can catch such losses on the track yet. Therefore, the brakeman must be very athletic built good sprinter with explosive speed strength power. Often, former athletes, mostly sprinters ( as Kevin Kuske ), long jumpers or decathlete ( as Christoph Langen and Wolfgang Hoppe), committed as background people who will later partially self bobsleigh pilot ( as Christoph Langen and Wolfgang Hoppe). The brakeman almost all top teams make the 100-meter personal bests under 11 seconds. During a fall on the bobsled No persons should be thrown out of the Bob, otherwise Bob will be disqualified. If all individuals are left after the fall of the bob in one of the first three runs up to the inflow in the target is the bobsleigh team can continue to compete successfully if it is still physically capable of doing.

Statistics

Since the 1920s, have already been Championships, then still in a 5 - Bob, extended. Since 1930 World Championships will run in the two- and four-man bobsleigh. Since 1924 Bobsledding is an integral part of the Olympic program. The first European Championships were held in 1935 in Ilmenau ( Thuringia) instead. From the beginning, German were to be found in the top places in international competitions. Since 2000 there is also world championships in the two- for women. With the 2002 Olympic Games in Salt Lake City the ladies competitions are also part of the Olympic program. First world champion as a pilot was the former successful luger Gabriele Kohlisch. A year later also won the Exweltmeisterin luge Susi Erdmann bronze, another year later bronze at the Olympics behind Sandra Prokoff. Since 1950 (Olympia since 1952) won teams from two German states since 1990 from the reunified Germany

• Which 12 of 29 Olympic victories (41%)

Thus, Germany is the strongest Bobnation.

The most successful driver of all time in both Bob's Wolfgang Hoppe with 36 international medals at Olympic Games, World and European Championships and World Cups, including 17 gold medals. Christoph Langen, one of his former brakeman was his rival and successor since the 1990s. Not as a pilot, but as a successful brakeman also applies Olaf Hampel.

Known bobsleigh pilot and Bobpilotinnen

The former Crown Prince and current Prince of Monaco, Albert II, was regularly in international competitions as bob pilot for his principality at the start.

Bob manufacturers

Bobs are high-tech devices today. Because the development and improvement of sports equipment require a lot of experience and practical know -how, while the market of buyers is very limited, there are only a few manufacturers in the international bobsleigh for Bob. In part, make these other sports equipment, so incorporate experience gained from the construction of road bikes, canoes and racing car bodies.

From 1976 to Bob were developed and manufactured in aeronautical aspects in the greatest secrecy at VEB Flugzeugwerft Dresden. They provided for the GDR selection 13 gold, 15 silver and ten bronze medals at World Championships and Olympic Games. The successor operation Dresden sports equipment (DSG ) ceased its production due to lack of orders in 2014.

The major manufacturers in Germany are:

• FES Berlin
• Singer- Carbon ( Bavaria )

Other internationally known manufacturers are:

• Bo -Dyn ( United States )
• Podar Bobsleigh (Italy )
• Hans Hiltebrand ( Switzerland )
• Wallner sports equipment ( Austria )

Often the bobsleds are a combination of several manufacturers. From experience rapid trolleys are combined with new aerodynamically optimized bodywork. Especially on the occasion of the Olympic Winter Games Bobsleigh were developed in projects. A prominent example of this are the American Bo -Dyn bobsleds, which were first used at the Olympic Winter Games in Lillehammer in 1994. For the Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver 2010 bobs were used in cooperation of CONI and Ferrari in Italy or CITIUS carriage together with ETH Zurich and industry partners in Switzerland.