Bobsleigh

What is bobsleigh?

In bobsleigh, one to four athletes ride a steered sled down an artificially iced track with banked curves. Unlike in luge and skeleton, the athletes sit inside a shell of plastic and metal that runs on four runners. The pilot sits at the front and steers the bob via ropes attached to the front runners. At the very back sits the brakeman, who stops the bob with a brake after the finish. There is no braking during the run.

The disciplines

• Four-man: pilot, two push athletes and brakeman. The four-man bob has been Olympic since the first Winter Games in 1924 and is considered the premier discipline. In 1928 it was raced with five people for the only time.
• Two-man: pilot and brakeman. Olympic for men since 1932 and for women since 2002.
• Monobob: one person alone in the bob. The sleds are built to a single standard so that equipment plays no role. Monobob has been Olympic for women since 2022.

The start: sprinters wanted

A bobsleigh race begins with the push start. The athletes push the bob with full power along a short start stretch and then jump in one after another. Because a lead at the start carries through the whole run, push athletes are often former sprinters, decathletes or weightlifters. The start time is measured separately and gives spectators an early hint of the final placing.

Steering and the perfect line

After the start, it is up to the pilot. They must enter every curve so that the bob slides as little as possible and does not hit the wall. Every contact costs time. Pilots learn a track through many training runs and visualisation, often walking the course beforehand. In the curves, the athletes experience several times the force of gravity.

Equipment and weight

Bobsleigh is also a technology sport. The shape of the shell, the runners and the chassis are developed at great effort, in Germany for example by the Institute for Research and Development of Sports Equipment (FES) in Berlin. So that heavy teams do not gain too great an advantage, the IBSF sets maximum weights: the limit is 390 kilograms for the two-man bob and 630 kilograms for the four-man bob, each including the crew. Lighter teams may add weights. The temperature of the runners is also checked before the start so that no one warms them illegally.

Scoring

World Cups usually have two runs, world championships and Olympic Games four. The total time counts. Timing is to the hundredth of a second, and the medal places are often separated by just a few hundredths.

History: from St. Moritz to the world

Bobsleigh originated at the end of the 19th century in St. Moritz in Switzerland. Wealthy winter guests built sleds and raced them through the streets of the town. The first bobsleigh club was founded there in 1897. The name "bob" is said to come from the riders' rocking back and forth ("bobbing"), which was initially meant to build speed. In 1923 the international federation was founded, today the IBSF.

Tracks in Germany, Austria and Switzerland

Hardly any region has as many artificial ice tracks as the German-speaking area. In Germany there are tracks at Königssee, Altenberg, Winterberg and Oberhof. In Austria the track is at Igls near Innsbruck, venue of the 1964 and 1976 Winter Games. Switzerland is home to the most famous track in the world: the Olympia Bob Run St. Moritz–Celerina. It is the last natural-ice track on the World Cup circuit and is rebuilt from snow and water every winter. More on the difference between types of ice can be found under natural vs. artificial ice.

German success

Germany has been one of the most successful bobsleigh nations for decades. Francesco Friedrich from Saxony won Olympic gold in both the two-man and four-man bob in 2018 and 2022 and collected numerous world titles. Among the women, pilots such as Mariama Jamanka and Laura Nolte have shaped recent years.

Getting started

Bobsleigh is not a sport you try on a whim. Many tracks do, however, offer guest rides in a taxi bob steered by an experienced pilot. Those who want to take it up themselves usually come via athletics: federations regularly look for fast, powerful athletes as push athletes. Pilots often start in youth programmes with smaller sleds.

Curious and little known

• In 1988 in Calgary, a bob from Jamaica took part in the Winter Games for the first time. The story inspired the film "Cool Runnings".
• Some bobsledders have also competed at the Summer Olympics, usually as sprinters or hurdlers.
• If there is a tie to the hundredth, bobsleigh awards two gold medals. This happened in the men's two-man bob in Pyeongchang in 2018.