Returns after a 12-year-long break
St. Moritz (pps) The 2000 FIL Luge World Championships were carried out on the natural ice track in the tony winter resort of St. Moritz. Now, after a “break” of 12 years, the Viessmann Luge World Cup will return to Switzerland. For the seventh time after 1986, 1988, 1991, 1995, 1996 and 1999 the World Cup series stops again in the Upper Engadin of Switzerland.
For the competitions in the women’s singles and doubles the middle start gate called “Montis Bolt” will be used. In the men’s singles it will be a separate gate above the bobsleigh start. It was specially built for the World Cup event this weekend.
The “St. Moritz-Celerina Olympic Bobrun” started operation in 1904, making it the oldest ice track in the world. It is the only remaining natural ice track on which bobsleigh, skeleton and luge races are held. The course of the 1,722m long track between Badrutt’s Park in St. Moritz at an altitude of 1,852m and Celerina-Cresta at 1,738m, has changed very little in the last 100 years. And the same is true of its design: at the end of November every year, a crew from South Tyrol spends three weeks constructing the new ice track for the season, using 5,000 cubic meters of snow and 4,000 cubic meters of water.
The only concessions to modified technology and today’s heavier sleds are a larger curve radius, some stone and wood reinforcement, particularly in the “Horseshoe” corner, as well as the extension of the out run.
The historic “Bobrun” in St. Moritz has seen 22 World Championships (18 in bobsleigh, three in skeleton and one in luge), 15 European Championships (11 in bobsleigh and four in skeleton) and any number of World Cups in both disciplines. It also hosted the 1928 and 1948 Winter Olympic Games. Interestingly, the Games in 1928 were made unique by the fact that the bobsled races were carried out in five-man sleds for the first and only time. By 1932 in Lake Placid (USA), only four-man and, for the first time, two-man sleds were allowed.
