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Famous Bobsledding Tracks
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Published: September 15, 2006
Bobsledding Tracks
The blinding wind slapping your face, the deafening sound of metal cutting through ice, air cupping your ears on both sides, a chill of the winter atmosphere tightening every muscle, speed so fast you nearly feel your physical body separate from time and space: these are just a few things you may experience sliding at record speeds down a bobsled track.
Like basketball needs a court, football needs a field, or baseball needs a diamond, bobsledding must have its official setting, an official place that defines the sport outside of the players and equipment themselves—the bobsled track.
Unlike the aforementioned sports settings, bobsled tracks are unique in that no one track is exactly alike and therefore determine the difficulty and nature of how a competition will conclude on its domain.
Physical properties are paramount to a bobsled track and competitors. Of course, the most important objective on the track is to go as fast as one can, but the conditions of the track and player's actions interplay with one another, to determine that speed. Temperature, friction, and drop are a few of the most important parameters because they are static traits of the bobsled track itself; a steeper drop causes objects to accelerate. Additionally, temperature and friction interplay inversely (and sometimes adversely), in that harder ice decreases friction. Friction on a bobsled track is a team's worst enemy. If the ice is too wet (usually due to higher temperature on the track), then the toboggan's blades will cut deeper into the ice and cause drag, which slows down velocity.
Respectively, human acts and properties can affect performance on a bobsled track. Often spectators comment on flying ice shavings as the toboggan takes a curve; the ice shavings indicate the steerer steering too hard, and that can slow down the speed. But, overall, a more involved physical property permeates the whole performance—gravity. Gravity, in this sense, refers to specific gravity or relative density of the object in motion; as the object on the track accelerates, the g (gravity) increases. On curves, which are places where the fastest speeds are recorded, players can pick up a g of 5—relatively high for a speeding human-on-a-heavy-metal-sled. Therefore, players' weights are key to how fast they
can travel down a track.
Two historically important tracks that give an idea of how all a bobsled track's physical properties play out are Lake Placid and St. Moritz. Lake Placid is 1680 m and 1455 m to the finish line, has twenty curves, and a vertical drop to the finish of 107 m. The average grade on this bobsled track is 8.6%, indicating the steep of the drop's incline. Comparatively, St. Moritz is 1722 m long (whole track) and has a 129 m vertical drop with a 8.14% average grade. A bobsled track's length, drop, and grade can "mess players up," if they are not wary of them because they all slightly vary. Thus, it's always important for players to practice on their competition track before the official run.
There are two bobsled tracks in the United States: one at Lake Placid, New York and the other at Bear Hollow, Utah - both Winter Olympics sites. Construction on the Bear Hollow site for the 2002 Winter Games began in August of 1990, taking a little over a decade. Worldwide, there are only twelve bobsled tracks officially recognized by the FIBT (Federation Internationale de Bobsleigh et de Tobogganing).
Bobsled tracks have seemingly countless features and conditions players or just recreational runners must consider. There are more than are mentioned here, but these are among the most commonly considered. The absolutely most important thing to know about a bobsled track is how to negotiate it because that alone can determine injury or death. Bobsledding can be a dangerous sport, and any athlete understands the pertinence of safety. Uniquely, safety makes the bobsled track, the playground for the sport itself, part of the equipment.
The blinding wind slapping your face, the deafening sound of metal cutting through ice, air cupping your ears on both sides, a chill of the winter atmosphere tightening every muscle, speed so fast you nearly feel your physical body separate from time and space: these are just a few things you may experience sliding at record speeds down a bobsled track.
Like basketball needs a court, football needs a field, or baseball needs a diamond, bobsledding must have its official setting, an official place that defines the sport outside of the players and equipment themselves—the bobsled track.
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Physical properties are paramount to a bobsled track and competitors. Of course, the most important objective on the track is to go as fast as one can, but the conditions of the track and player's actions interplay with one another, to determine that speed. Temperature, friction, and drop are a few of the most important parameters because they are static traits of the bobsled track itself; a steeper drop causes objects to accelerate. Additionally, temperature and friction interplay inversely (and sometimes adversely), in that harder ice decreases friction. Friction on a bobsled track is a team's worst enemy. If the ice is too wet (usually due to higher temperature on the track), then the toboggan's blades will cut deeper into the ice and cause drag, which slows down velocity.
Respectively, human acts and properties can affect performance on a bobsled track. Often spectators comment on flying ice shavings as the toboggan takes a curve; the ice shavings indicate the steerer steering too hard, and that can slow down the speed. But, overall, a more involved physical property permeates the whole performance—gravity. Gravity, in this sense, refers to specific gravity or relative density of the object in motion; as the object on the track accelerates, the g (gravity) increases. On curves, which are places where the fastest speeds are recorded, players can pick up a g of 5—relatively high for a speeding human-on-a-heavy-metal-sled. Therefore, players' weights are key to how fast they
can travel down a track.
Two historically important tracks that give an idea of how all a bobsled track's physical properties play out are Lake Placid and St. Moritz. Lake Placid is 1680 m and 1455 m to the finish line, has twenty curves, and a vertical drop to the finish of 107 m. The average grade on this bobsled track is 8.6%, indicating the steep of the drop's incline. Comparatively, St. Moritz is 1722 m long (whole track) and has a 129 m vertical drop with a 8.14% average grade. A bobsled track's length, drop, and grade can "mess players up," if they are not wary of them because they all slightly vary. Thus, it's always important for players to practice on their competition track before the official run.
There are two bobsled tracks in the United States: one at Lake Placid, New York and the other at Bear Hollow, Utah - both Winter Olympics sites. Construction on the Bear Hollow site for the 2002 Winter Games began in August of 1990, taking a little over a decade. Worldwide, there are only twelve bobsled tracks officially recognized by the FIBT (Federation Internationale de Bobsleigh et de Tobogganing).
Bobsled tracks have seemingly countless features and conditions players or just recreational runners must consider. There are more than are mentioned here, but these are among the most commonly considered. The absolutely most important thing to know about a bobsled track is how to negotiate it because that alone can determine injury or death. Bobsledding can be a dangerous sport, and any athlete understands the pertinence of safety. Uniquely, safety makes the bobsled track, the playground for the sport itself, part of the equipment.
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