Bobsleigh or bobsled is a winter sport in which teams of two or four teammates make timed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sleigh. The timed runs are combined to calculate the final score.
Skeleton is a winter sliding sport in which a person rides a small sled, known as a skeleton bobsled, down a frozen track while lying face down and head-first. The sport and the sled may have been named from the bony appearance of the sled.
Mihails Arhipovs is a former Latvian bobsledder who has competed since 2003. Competing in two Winter Olympics, he earned his best finish of tenth in the four-man event at Vancouver in 2010.
At the 1948 Winter Olympics, two bobsleigh events were contested. The two-man competition was held on Friday, January 30, 1948 and on Saturday, January 31, 1948 while the four-man competition was held on Friday, February 6, 1948 and on Saturday, February 7, 1948.
Günther Huber is an Italian bobsledder who competed in the 1990s. Before taking up bobsledding, he had originally started his sporting career in luge, with his most notable result being a third place in doubles in the 1982 World Junior Luge Championships: he switched to bobsleigh in 1988. Huber was a member of Centro Sportivo Carabinieri. He competed in four Winter Olympics and won two medals in the two-man event with one gold and one bronze.
The International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (IBSF), originally known by the French name Fédération Internationale de Bobsleigh et de Tobogganing (FIBT), is the international sports federation for bobsleigh and skeleton. It acts as an umbrella organization for 14 national bobsleigh and skeleton associations as of 2007. It was founded on 23 November 1923 by the delegates of Great Britain, France, Switzerland, Canada and the United States at the meeting of their first International Congress in Paris, France. In June 2015, it announced a name change from FIBT to IBSF. The federation's headquarters are in Lausanne, Switzerland.
The IBSF World Championships, part of the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation, have taken place on an annual basis in non-Winter Olympic years since 1930. A two-man event was included in 1931 with a combined championship occurring in 1947. Men's skeleton was introduced as a championship of its own in 1982 while women's bobsleigh and skeleton events were introduced in 2000. Both the women's bobsleigh and skeleton events were merged with the men's bobsleigh events at the 2004 championships. A mixed team event, consisting of one run each of men's skeleton, women's skeleton, 2-man bobsleigh, and 2-women bobsleigh debuted in 2007.
The FIBT World Championships 1939 took place in St. Moritz, Switzerland (Two-man) and Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy (Four-man). St. Moritz hosted the two-man event for the second time after hosting it previously in 1938, along with hosting the four-man event in 1931, 1935, and 1937. Cortina d'Ampezzo hosted the two-man event previously in 1937. It was the last world championships that would be held prior to World War II and the last that would be held with bobsleigh events in separate locations until 2000 when the two-woman event debuted that year.
The FIBT World Championships 1982 took place in St. Moritz, Switzerland for the record fourteenth time. The Swiss city had hosted the event previously in 1931 (Four-man), 1935 (Four-man), 1937 (Four-man), 1938 (Two-man), 1939 (Two-man), 1947, 1955, 1957, 1959, 1965, 1970, 1974, and 1977. The skeleton event debuted at the championships after being held in St. Moritz at the 1928 and 1948 Winter Olympics and it marked the first time the event took place on the actual bobsleigh track and not on the Cresta Run.
The FIBT World Championships 2007 took place in St. Moritz, Switzerland for the record twenty-first time, doing so previously in 1931 (Four-man), 1935 (Four-man), 1937 (Four-man), 1938 (Two-man), 1939 (Two-man), 1947, 1955, 1957, 1959, 1965, 1970, 1974, 1977, 1982, 1987, 1989 (Skelton), 1990 (Bobsleigh), 1997 (Bobsleigh), 1998 (Skeleton), and 2001. The mixed team event consisting of one run each of men's skeleton, women's skeleton, 2-man bobsleigh, and 2-women bobsleigh debuted at these championships.
Oskars Melbārdis is Latvian bobsledder who has competed since 2006. He is the most successful bobsledder in the history of his country, who won one gold and two bronze Olympic medals. He also earned the first ever gold medal for Latvia at World Championships in Igls, preceded by one silver and two bronze medals in 2009-2015.
The four-man bobsleigh results at the 1948 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, Switzerland. The competition was held on Friday and Saturday, 6 and 7 February 1948.
The two-man bobsleigh results at the 1948 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz. The competition was held on Friday, January 30, 1948 and on Saturday, January 31, 1948.
The bobsleigh competition of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics was held at the Whistler Sliding Centre between 20 and 27 February 2010.
The FIBT World Championships 2013 took place at the St. Moritz-Celerina Olympic Bobrun in St. Moritz, Switzerland for the record twenty-second time, after hosting the event previously in 1931 (Four-man), 1935 (Four-man), 1937 (Four-man), 1938 (Two-man), 1939 (Two-man), 1947, 1955, 1957, 1959, 1965, 1970, 1974, 1977, 1982, 1987, 1989 (Skeleton), 1990 (Bobsleigh), 1997 (Bobsleigh), 1998 (Skeleton), 2001, and 2007.
The 2009–10 Bobsleigh World Cup was a multi race tournament over a season for bobsleigh. The season started on 12 November 2009 in Park City, Utah, United States and ended on 24 January 2010 in Igls, Austria. The World Cup was organised by the FIBT who also run world cups and championships in skeleton. For this season, it was sponsored by Intersport.
Joska Le Conté is a Dutch skeleton racer who has competed since 2006. Prior to starting in skeleton, she was a pole vaulter; when not competing, she works for the Royal Dutch Motorsport Association (KNMV) as a policy officer. Her skeleton coach is Martin Rettl, who works with a number of athletes from small nations under the name "Badass Skeleton Team". Although Le Conté earned a second quota for Dutch women's skeleton at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, she did not meet the stricter qualification standards of the Dutch Olympic Committee, and the second Dutch quota was reallocated to Switzerland.
For the 1948 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, Switzerland, a total of eight sports venues were used. The five venues used for the 1928 Winter Olympics were reused for these games. Three new venues were added for alpine skiing which had been added to the Winter Olympics program twelve years earlier in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. As of 2015, the bob run continues to be used for bobsleigh and the Cresta Run for skeleton while alpine skiing remains popular in St. Moritz.
The 2010–11 Bobsleigh World Cup was a multi race tournament over a season for bobsleigh. The season started on 22 November 2010 in Whistler, Canada and ended on 27 January 2011 in Königssee, Germany. The World Cup was organised by the FIBT who also run World Cups and Championships in skeleton. This season was sponsored by Viessmann.
The 2011–12 Bobsleigh World Cup is a multi race tournament over a season for bobsleigh. The season started on 2 December 2011 in Igls, Austria and ended on 11 February 2012 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The World Cup is organised by the FIBT who also run World Cups and Championships in skeleton. This season iss sponsored by Viessmann.
