Bobsleigh
The Bobsleigh is a winter sport was developed in the late 19th century in Switzerland by the English and now part of the Olympic program at the Winter Olympics is. Bobsleigh is also closely related to luge and even more to skeleton .
etymology
The term “bob” comes from the English verb “to bob” (German: “move jerkily”). At the beginning of bobsleigh, the teams tried to give the bobsled more momentum and thus speed by leaning back and then jerking the upper body together. In German this acceleration technique was called bobben at the time .
history
As the first forerunners of roller coasters or bobsleigh runs, so-called “Russian mountains” or “slide mountains” emerged in Russia in the 17th century , especially in the area around today's Saint Petersburg and in Moscow . At low temperatures in winter, wooden ramps were covered with snow and ice so that these artificial “mountains” could be slid down on a layer of ice several centimeters thick. In order to keep the icing up, it was doused with freezing water every day. Initially, blocks of ice were used as "sleds", on which a seat made of wood and wool was attached for the passengers. The railways were particularly popular with the wealthy population and the nobility and were sometimes lavishly designed, decorated and planted with trees. It can often be read that Napoleon's soldiers got to know the invention , which became known under the French name Montagnes Russes, during the Russian campaign and brought it with them to Western Europe, especially to France . There are reports, however, that a Russian mountain was in operation in the Quartier des Ternes in Paris as early as 1804 . Due to frequent accidents, it was shut down.
Russian troops brought them to Paris again in 1813, from where they spread for a certain time in German-speaking countries and people now drove on sledges that slid on rails without ice, “... which often formed an upright loop at the end of the path which, held by centrifugal force , was passed through with the head hanging down ”.
In 1888, an Englishman in Andreasberg developed the bobsleigh by mounting two sledges one behind the other under a board. The front part could be steered by cables. The races that followed were carried out exclusively on natural toboggan runs, i.e. on forest paths that were primarily designed to transport wood (also on sledges).
In 1901 Carl Benzing (1869–1955) built a steel bobsleigh with steering based on the Swiss model in the Thuringian spa town of Friedrichroda . The open five-man bobsleigh, which he called Schwarzer Peter , is considered the first “real” German bobsleigh and made Friedrichroda the cradle of German bobsleigh with the Spießbergbahn built a few years later . Probably the first German bobsleigh race with ten bobsleighs took place in the winter of 1901/02 on the Rote Weg near Friedrichroda.
In Germany, the Bobsleigh and Sleigh Association for Germany was founded in 1911 . The international bobsleigh sport has been organized in the Fédération Internationale de Bobsleigh et de Tobogganing (FIBT) since 1923 . Since 1924 there have been competitions at the Olympic Winter Games and also world championships . At the Olympic Winter Games in 1924 and 1928, five bobsleigh riders were allowed.
Today, the sports bobsleighs used are aerodynamically clad and the front runners can be steered using a cable ( steering ropes ). The FIBT regulations contain three disciplines: two-man bobsleigh for women, two-man bobsleigh for men and four-man bobsleigh for men (the latter is often simply called "four-man bobsleigh"). Two-man bobsleighs must have a minimum empty weight of 170 kg, four-man bobsleigh 210 kg. The maximum weight with crew and possibly ballast is 340 kg for two-man bobsleighs for women, 390 kg for men and 630 kg for four-man bobsleighs. In autumn 2014 the FIBT decided to allow mixed teams for the four-man bobsleigh in the future .
In 2006, the FIBT re-regulated the 14 mm wide runners: only runners may be used that the FIBT has produced by a manufacturer from a single type of stainless steel and sells itself. The slightly curved longitudinal profile, also known as a jump, may still be processed in accordance with the rules, but the material structure may not be changed. The runner gauge is set at 67 cm. The (minimum) width of the hood for four-man bobsleighs is 70 cm, for two-man bobsleigh 68 cm in the front, 64 cm in the middle and 54 cm in the back. 4 side deflectors are at least 80 to a maximum of 87 cm wider. Suspension, axles and their spacing, joints, angles of rotation, construction methods, computer brakes are also precisely specified.
The train
In the early days of bobsleigh, riders without helmets mostly drove on steep forest paths that were only bordered on the left and right by high bands of snow. Accidents with bobsleigh and broken bones were not uncommon. With the increasing popularity of the sport in the first decade of the 20th century, numerous planned natural ice rinks with artificial borders and developed curves were built. Track lengths of up to 2,500 meters were common at the time. Today only very few natural ice rinks are in operation, bobsleigh rides mostly take place on artificially created, 1200 to 1600 meter long icy rinks.
The number of bobsleigh runs is very small worldwide. Four of them are in Germany : Winterberg , Königssee (first artificial ice rink in the world) in the district of the same name in the municipality of Schönau and the allegedly most difficult track in the world in Altenberg . There are no more international bobsleigh competitions on the luge track in Oberhof .
Almost all bobsleigh runs today have artificial ice in a concrete channel. The only natural ice bobsled run on which World Cup races are held is in St. Moritz ( Olympia Bobrun St. Moritz – Celerina ). The bobsleigh races of the Olympic Winter Games were held here in 1928 and 1948 . World Cup routes 14/15 Lake Placid, Calgary, Altenberg, Winterberg, Königsee, La Plagne, Innsbruck, Sotschi, St. Moritz
Technique and physical requirements
Bobsleighs reach speeds of well over 100 km / h, sometimes even 150 km / h, for example on the Whistler Sliding Center at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver . In steep turns and chicanes, acceleration can briefly reach 5 g (five times the acceleration due to gravity). That places enormous demands on the crew. The pilot must have extremely good responsiveness, an excellent "track feel" and pronounced 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 are often only a few hundredths or thousandths of a second, even after four runs. Often the decision about the placement is made in the push and start phase on the first 50 meters. The inrun zone is about 15 meters long. Starting times that are a few hundredths worse usually result in a loss of a few tenths of a second at the finish and only a few pilots can make up for such losses on the route. Therefore, the pushers have to be very athletically built, good sprinters with explosive high-speed power. Often former track and field athletes, mostly sprinters (like Kevin Kuske ), long jumpers or decathletes (like Christoph Langen and Wolfgang Hoppe ), are hired as backers, who later become bobsleigh pilots themselves (like Christoph Langen and Wolfgang Hoppe). The pushers of almost all top teams achieve 100 meter bests under 11 seconds. In the event of a fall on the bobsleigh run, no one may be thrown out of the bobsleigh, otherwise the bobsleigh will be disqualified. If after the fall of the bobsleigh in one of the first three runs all people have remained in it until the finish line, the bobsleigh team can continue the competition, provided they are physically able to do so.
statistics
International championships, back then still in the 5- man bobsleigh , have been held since the 1920s . World championships in two-man and four-man bobsleigh have been held since 1930 . Bobsleighing has been an integral part of the Olympic program since 1924. The first European championships took place in Ilmenau (Thuringia) in 1935 . Right from the start, Germans were at the forefront of international competitions. Since 2000 there have also been world championships in two-man bobsleigh for women. With the 2002 Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, the women's competitions are also part of the Olympic program. The former successful toboggan runner Gabriele Kohlisch became the first world champion as a pilot . A year later, the former world champion in tobogganing Susi Erdmann won bronze, another year later also bronze at the Olympic Games behind Sandra Prokoff . Since 1950 (the Olympics since 1952), teams from both German states have won, and since 1990 from reunified Germany
- 124 of 330 World Cup medals (37.6%)
- of which 47 out of 110 world championship titles (43%)
- 32 of 87 Olympic medals (37%)
- thereof 12 of 29 Olympic victories (41%)
This makes Germany the strongest bob nation.
The most successful pilot of all time in both bobsleighs is Wolfgang Hoppe with 36 international medals at the Olympic Games, World and European Championships and World Cups, 17 of which were gold. Christoph Langen, one of his earlier pushers, has been his competitor and successor since the 1990s. Not as a pilot, but as a successful brakeman applies Olaf Hampel .
Well-known bobsleigh pilots
The former Crown Prince and current Prince of Monaco , Albert II , was also a regular bobsleigh pilot for his principality in international competitions.
Bobsleigh maker
Bobs are high-tech devices today. Because the development and improvement of sports equipment requires a great deal of experience and practical know-how, and the market for buyers is very limited, there are only a few manufacturers of bobsleighs in international bobsleigh. In some cases, they also manufacture other sports equipment, so that experience from building racing bikes , canoes and racing car bodies is incorporated.
From 1976 onwards, bobsleighs were developed and manufactured under the utmost secrecy in the VEB Flugzeugwerft Dresden under aeronautical aspects. They achieved 13 gold, 15 silver and ten bronze medals at world championships and the Olympic Games for the GDR selection. The successor company Dresdener Sportgeräte (DSG) stopped production in 2014 due to a lack of orders.
The most important manufacturers in Germany are:
- FES Berlin
- Singer-Carbon (Bavaria)
Other internationally known manufacturers are:
- Bo-Dyn (USA)
- Podar Bobsleigh (Italy)
- Hans Hiltebrand (Switzerland)
- Wallner Sportgeräte (Austria)
- SwissBob (Switzerland)
The bobsleds are often a combination of several manufacturers. From experience, fast chassis are combined with new aerodynamically optimized bodies. Bobsleigh sleds were developed in projects especially for the occasion of the Olympic Winter Games. Prominent examples of this are the Opel bobsleigh from 1980 and the American Bo-Dyn bobsleigh, which were first used at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer . For the Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver 2010, bobsleighs were used in cooperation with CONI and Ferrari in Italy or CITIUS sledges together with ETH Zurich and industrial partners in Switzerland.
See also
- Bobsleigh at the Olympic Games
- List of Olympic champions in bobsleigh
- List of world cup winners in bobsleigh
- List of world champions in bobsleigh
- List of junior world champions in bobsleigh
- List of European champions in bobsleigh
- List of German champions in bobsleigh
literature
- Willy Goepferich: How do I build myself - snowshoes and bobsleigh sledges (approx. 1925, Beyer, Leipzig, new edition 2006). Survival Press, Radolfzell, ISBN 3-937933-13-1 .
Web links
- Bobsleigh and sledge association for Germany - Official website
- Swiss Bobsleigh, Sled and Skeleton Sports Association
- Federation Internationale de Bobsleigh et de Tobogganing
- Among other things, the history of bobsleigh
- The only natural toboggan run in the world
- Analysis and design of bobsleds
Individual evidence
- ^ Robert Cartmell: The Incredible Scream Machine: A History of the Roller Coaster Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1987, ISBN 0-87972-341-6 .
- ↑ Meyers Konversations-Lexikon, 1888. http://www.elexikon.ch/1888_bild/14_0105#Bild_1888
- ↑ Instruction and entertainment sheet for the farmer and small tradesman in Bohemia, Volume 3, Haase Söhne, 1840. https://books.google.de/books?id=zntfAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA85&lpg=PA85&dq=rutschberge&source=bl&ots=FNlTjWITl_JWPIQR6M9AH = de & sa = X & ved = 0CDkQ6AEwBWoVChMIo-yx9JraxwIVCroaCh3LiAYT # v = onepage & q = slip mountains & f = false .
- ^ Carl Benzing and bobsleigh . In: Helga Raschke : Living and working in the northern Thuringian Forest . Erfurt 2006, p. 114 ff.
- ↑ Winter sports: Association clears the way for mixed teams in the four-man bobsleigh , dpa report on Spiegel Online from September 25, 2014, accessed on September 25.
- ↑ FIBT takes revolutionary step: 4-man bobsleigh opened for mixed-gender teams on the FIBT website from September 25, 2014, accessed on September 25.
- ↑ zeit.de of March 1, 2010: High-tech in the four-man bobsleigh - the boys in the bobsleigh are the real machines
- ↑ ard.de from February 25, 2010: German sledges without a chance Sheet for Kiriasis - Martini falls
- ^ Frankfurter Rundschau of February 22, 2010: Gold for Lange in the two-man bobsleigh - Florschütz second
- ↑ End after almost four decades - Dresden's bobsleigh tradition ends. In: n-tv.de. December 29, 2013, accessed February 23, 2014 .
- ↑ The traditional Dresden bobsleigh manufactory closes. In: mdr.de. December 28, 2013, archived from the original on December 31, 2013 ; accessed on June 14, 2016 .