BOBSLEIGH

The Bobsleigh is for people who really like to live dangerously.

You hurdle down iced concrete tubes. You can do it either flat on your back or back sardine-like-packed in a flimsy vehicle with brakes which you are not allowed to use it. Will that be your way of fun?

British tourist in Switzerland had a bright idea to race down a snow-covered Alpine road, in the 19th century. This humble beginning started off today's exhilarating and dangerous winter sport. It developed into three categories; luge tobogganing, Cresta tobogganing and bobsledding or bobsleigh.

If you ride a sledge down on a snowcovered surface, you are tobaggoning.  As a sport it has developed into two types, the luge and cresta tobogganing.  It involves to ride down a purpose built track on a small sledge or sleds.

BOBSLEIGH IN  DAVOS 1910

EAST GERMAN BOBSLEIGH OLYMPIC TEAM IN 1951

Luge sleds are made of fibreglass with steel runners. In supplying pressure with the shoulder, hands and feet on the luge the riders steer it. It has no brakes and would you be surprise if I tell you that they have to wear crash helmets. Riders can wear knee and elbow protectors but it is not compulsory. The sitting position is compulsory at the start but then they lie flat to get the maximum speed. The riders have to have iron stomach muscles to stand all this. Iron nerves and a good insurance policy is something else. The speed is 105 km/h which leaves you with a prayer and aerodynamic elasticated suit from here to eternity.

The Cresta or skeleton toboggan makes a difference from lying on your back and hurtling feet first or lie on your stomach and meeting St Peter on the gates face first. Cresta was first in the international sport.

If you don't like any of these and decide bobsledding which isn't much better but a lot faster. You have the weight of four athletes which helps to a speed of 160 km/h. One good thing it has brakes but in competitions you are not allow to use them. If you use them in emergency, you are automatically disqualified.

Today's bobsleighs are highly sophisticated, streamlined to tenth of a mm and made of steel, fibreglass and aluminium. They have mechanical brakes and steering.

The tracks are purpose built ice-runs and banked bends. The international competitions have 15 bends and straight runs with high banked walls to keep the sled in. Racing in the Olympics demands four runs, each team, and the team with the lowest aggregate time wins.

Teams are two or four men. Their strength and stamina is vital. The flying man-powered start is very decisive for good timing. They have agility for hopping in quickly and crouch down low. They have to lean at the precise moment on each bend. The man in the front steers and the brakeman, at the back, is responsible for checking skids and brakes at the end of the run.

For a maximum weight for a two-man bob has to be 390 kg. The maximum for a four-man bob has to be 630kg. If the weight has not been achieved ballast may be added.

Until 1992, men were mad enough to enter this dangerous sport. Now women's teams are trying to enter and compete in the Olympics.

Bob runs have to be 1500m long the least and 15 banked curves with various levels of difficulty. Don't worry; you won't miss your lunch or dinner because it only takes 60 seconds from start to finish.

Do you remember the film 'Cool Running'?

The true story is that a Jamaican failed to enter the national Olympic team. He decided to train people for a team to bobsleigh on the local beach. Unbelievable he succeeded and his team competed in the 1988 Olympics.

Peter van der Zeil lived in a no-snow area in Cheshire. He built a wooden ramp from the roof of his shed to the end of their lawn. Then he attached skateboards to his bobsleigh and practise and practise. He wanted to enter the Olympics for his mother's country which was Sri Lanka. Disney never got to hear about this attraction.