| Bobsleigh at the 1948 Winter Olympics | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Two | men |
| Four | men |
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. [1]
| Bobsleigh at the 1948 Winter Olympics | |
|---|---|
| | |
| Two | men |
| Four | men |
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. [1]
| Gold | Silver | Bronze |
|---|---|---|
 United States (USA)USA II Francis Tyler Patrick Martin Edward Rimkus William D'Amico |  Belgium (BEL)Belgium I Max Houben Freddy Mansveld Louis-Georges Niels Jacques Mouvet | United States (USA) USA I James Bickford Thomas Hicks Donald Dupree William Dupree |
The competition was halted in the middle of the second round when a water pipe burst, flooding the bobrun.
Bobsleigh or bobsled is a team winter sport that involves making timed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sleigh. International bobsleigh competitions are governed by the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation, also known as FIBT from the French Fédération Internationale de Bobsleigh et de Tobogganing. National competitions are often governed by bodies such as the United States Bobsled and Skeleton Federation, Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton, and the German Bobsleigh, Luge, and Skeleton Federation.
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.
At the 1928 Winter Olympics, only one bobsleigh event was contested, the five man event. The competition was held on Saturday, 18 February 1928.
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.
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 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.
Francis William Tyler was an American bobsledder who competed in the late 1940s. Competing in two Winter Olympics, he won the gold medal in the four-man event at St. Moritz in 1948.
Max Houben was a versatile Belgian athlete who competed from the early 1920s until his death at the 1949 FIBT World Championships. He won a silver medal in the four-man bobsled event at the 1948 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, and was the oldest medalist at the Winter Olympics until Canadian Russ Howard won a gold medal in men's curling at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin.
Nino Bibbia was an Italian skeleton racer and bobsledder who competed in the late 1940s. Born in Bianzone, Lombardy, he won the gold medal in the men's skeleton event at the 1948 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz.
The Olympia Bob Run St. Moritz-Celerina is a bobsleigh track located in the Engadin Valley, Switzerland. It officially opened on New Year's Day 1904 and is the oldest bobsleigh track in the world. It is also the only one that is naturally refrigerated. It is used for other sliding sports, including skeleton and luge.
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.
René Charlet was a French bobsledder who competed from the mid-1930s to the late 1940s. Competing in two Winter Olympics, he earned his best finish of 9th in the four-man event at St. Moritz in 1948. In 1936 he failed to finish in the four-man event.
Ivar Johansen was a Norwegian bobsledder who competed in the late 1940s. At the 1948 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, he finished fifth in the four-man and seventh in the two-man events.
Luigi Cavalieri was an Italian bobsledder who competed from the late 1940s to the early 1950s. He competed in two Winter Olympics, and earned his best finish in the four-man event at St. Moritz in 1948.
Amédée Ronzel was a French bobsledder. Competing in two Winter Olympics, he earned his best finish of ninth in the four-man event at St. Moritz in 1948. In 1936 he failed to finish in the four-man event.
The bobsleigh competition of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics was held at the Whistler Sliding Centre between 20 and 27 February 2010.
The four-man bobsleigh competition at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, was held at the Whistler Sliding Centre in Whistler, British Columbia, on 26–27 February. The German team of André Lange, René Hoppe, Kevin Kuske, and Martin Putze were the defending Olympic champion in this event. America's team of Steve Holcomb, Justin Olsen, Steve Mesler, and Curtis Tomasevicz were the defending world champions in this event. The test event was won by the Latvian team of Jānis Miņins, Daumants Dreiškens, Oskars Melbardis, and Intars Dambis. The last World Cup event prior to the 2010 Games place took place in Igls, Austria on 24 January 2010 and was won by the German team of Lange, Hoppe, Kuske, and Putze. Holcomb of the United States won both the four-man and the combined World Cups.
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 Belgian national bobsleigh team represents Belgium in international bobsledding competitions. Belgium first gained fame in bobsleighing during their debut at the first Winter Olympics in Chamonix in 1924, where a Belgian four-man bob acquired the bronze medal. The second and last Belgian bobsleigh medal at the Winter Olympics so far, also won during a four-man event, was a silver in St. Moritz in 1948.
