Bobsleigh
A gravity-powered winter sport on ice tracks.
Bobsleigh, also known as bobsled, is a winter sport in which individuals or teams of two to four athletes make timed speed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sleigh. International competitions are governed by the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (formerly the FIBT). The sport originated in the late 19th century in St. Moritz, Switzerland, when wealthy British tourists adapted boys' delivery sleds and toboggans for racing, eventually evolving into bobsleighs, luges, and skeletons.
- field
- Winter sport
- governing_body
- International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (IBSF)
- top_nations
- Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Canada, United States
- sleigh_types
- Two-man, four-man, two-woman, monobob
Lore & Background
The first bobsleds were built in the late 19th century in St. Moritz, Switzerland, by wealthy tourists from Victorian Britain staying at the Palace Hotel owned by Caspar Badrutt. Early sleds were adapted from boys' delivery sleds and toboggans. Initially raced on narrow streets, collisions led to a ban from public highways. Badrutt then built a basic natural-ice run near the hamlet of Cresta in the late 1870s.
Reader's Guide
Germany and Switzerland have been the most successful nations, with Germany dominating since the 1990s. The sport's name derives from early competitors bobbing back and forth to increase speed. Bobsleigh remains a test of speed, strength, and precision steering, with crews of two or four athletes pushing a lightweight sled before jumping in for the descent.
Did You Know?
- The name 'bobsleigh' comes from the action of early competitors bobbing back and forth inside their sleds to increase speed.
- The Cresta Run, built in the late 1870s, is the oldest bobsleigh track in the world and does not use artificial refrigeration.
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