Whistler Sliding Centre
50.1075 - 122.945Koordinaten: 50 ° 6 ' 27 " N, 122 ° 56 ' 42" W
The Whistler Sliding Centre is a skating rink for the luge, skeleton and bobsleigh sport in the Fitzsimmons Creek valley in Whistler, Canada. It is the venue for the luge, skeleton and Bobwettbewerbe at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. The construction of the railway has cost 68 million euros.
History
Vancouver continued in 2003 against Pyeongchang (South Korea ) and Salzburg ( Austria ) to host the 2010 Olympic Winter Games through. Subsequently, the construction of an ice channel was announced on 15 November 2004.
The basic design and driving dynamics calculations were carried out by Udo Gurgel from Leipzig engineering firm Gurgel Partner (IBG ), detailed planning took Stantec Architecture Limited, an architectural firm, which is also the ice rink in Park City, Utah ( USA), the venue of the Olympic Games 2002, designed.
The interior of the building site began on 1 June 2005. From June 2005 to December 2007 were constantly at least 60 workers engaged in the construction, while the main construction period in the summer of 2006, there were even up to 500 workers. In November 2007, the construction was completed. The subsequent test phase lasted until the year 2008.
The initially with 55 million Canadian dollars estimated construction costs were far exceeded with final cost of 100 million Canadian dollars, are to be worn by the training of international teams but themselves.
At the conclusion of training on 12 February 2010, a few hours before the opening ceremony of the Olympic competitions, died of Georgian Nodar Kumaritashvili luge. He succumbed to his injuries he had suffered in an accident in the finish area after he fall into the Thunderbird curve, the last of the 16 curves of the 1374 -meter-long train skidded been catapulted by the curve of the track, while an open -web steel girder rail canopy had hit. The final velocity measurement just before the target curve already slightly uphill leading amounted to 144 km / h. Despite the immediate Reanimierungsmaßnahmen the helper of the Georgians died later on the way to hospital.
Criticism and reactions
Even before the death Kumaritaschwilis criticism of the planning of the Whistler Sliding Centre had become loud; the web has been rated by many experts to be too fast and uncontrollable. These positions were continuously taken into account during the Olympic luge competitions by the race distances were shortened, so that the men started from the women's start, the ladies and the doubles from juniors start. For the Bobwettbewerbe was trying to defuse the web by adjusting the thickness of the ice, particularly in the meistkritisierten curve combination 11-12-13-14. Nevertheless, it came into the training and also in competition runs to many falls with serious injury to the part, after which several teams decided to withdraw from the Bobwettbewerben.
Records
On this train was at the training runs to the XXI. Winter Olympics, measured at 154 km / h, the highest ever measured speed in luge. Was put up this record by Manuel Pfister.