| 1960 World Championships | |
|---|---|
| Location | Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy |
The FIBT World Championships 1960 took place in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy for the fifth time. The Italian city had hosted the event previously in 1937 (Two-man), 1939 (Four-man), 1950, and 1954. This was an extraordinary event because bobsleigh was not included in the program at the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, California.
| Pos | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Gold |  Italy (Eugenio Monti, Renzo Alverà) | |
| Silver |  West Germany (Franz Schelle, Otto Göbl) | |
| Bronze | Italy (Sergio Zardini, Luciano Alberti) |
The Italian duo of Monti and Alvera won their fourth straight championships in this event.
| Pos | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Gold | Italy (Eugenio Monti, Furio Nordio, Sergio Siorpaes, Renzo Alverà) | |
| Silver | West Germany (Hans Rösch, Alfred Hammer, Theodore Bauer, Albert Kandlbinder) | |
| Bronze |  Switzerland (Max Angst, Hansjörg Hirschbühl, Gottfried Kottmann, René Kuhl) |
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Italy (ITA) | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| 2 | West Germany (FRG) | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 3 | Switzerland (SUI) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Totals (3 entries) | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 | |
Victor Emery is a Canadian athlete and businessman. Emery was born in Montreal, Quebec. He is a gold medallist in the four man bobsleigh pilot from the 1964 Olympic Winter Games, as well as the 1965 World Championships.
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.
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 since 1930. Starting with 2002, championships of non-Winter Olympic years have not been held. 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 1966 took place in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy for the sixth time, having hosted the event previously in 1937 (Two-man), 1939 (Four-man), 1950, 1954, and 1960. The Four-man event was cancelled following the death of West Germany's Toni Pensperger during competition. Pensperger would be awarded a posthumous gold medal from the FIBT along with his surviving teammates Ludwig Siebert, Helmut Werzer, and Roland Ebert. As of 2010, Pensperger's death would set the FIBT to increase and improve safety among all bobsleigh competitions at all levels, including the Winter Olympics and the World championships.
The FIBT World Championships 1981 took place in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy for the seventh time, having hosted the event previously in 1937 (Two-man), 1939 (Four-man), 1950, 1954, 1960, and 1966. Following the death of West Germany's Toni Pensperger at the track in 1966, numerous safety improvements were done at the track which were satisfactory enough for the FIBT to allow the championships to be hosted. These improvements would not be enough as American bobsledder James Morgan was killed during the four-man event. The death of a stuntman on the track during the first day of filming of For Your Eyes Only, done a week after these championships led track officials to shorten the track to its current configuration. Cortina would not host another championship until 1989.
The FIBT World Championships 1985 took place in Cervinia, Italy for the third time, having hosted the event previously in 1971 and 1975. Except for competitions in St. Moritz, Switzerland and Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, it would be the last time a championship would be hosted on a naturally refrigerated track with all other competitions taking place on artificially refrigerated ones.
The FIBT World Championships 1989 took place in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy (Bobsleigh) and St. Moritz, Switzerland (Skeleton). Cortina hosted the championships for the eighth time, having hosted the event previously in 1937 (Two-man), 1939 (Four-man), 1950, 1954, 1960, 1966, and 1981. Meanwhile, St. Moritz hosted a championship event for the record sixteenth 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, 1977, 1982, and 1987. The skeleton event became an official championship event this year, albeit at a separate location from the bobsleigh event. They would not be at the same location other than St. Moritz for the first time until the 1996 championships in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
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Renzo Alverà was an Italian bobsledder who competed from the mid-1950s to the early 1960s. At the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo, he won silver medals in the two-man and four-man events. He was born in Cortina d'Ampezzo.
Renato Mocellini was an Italian bobsledder who competed from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s. He won a silver medal in the four-man event at the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo.
Sergio Siorpaes is an Italian bobsledder who competed from the late 1950s to the mid-1960s. At the 1964 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, he won bronze medals in the two-man and four-man events.
Luciano de Paolis is an Italian bobsledder who competed in the late 1960s. At the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, he won gold medals in the two-man and four-man events.
Romano Bonagura was an Italian bobsledder who competed from the late 1950s to the mid-1960s, born in Ravenna. He won the silver medal in the two-man event at the 1964 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck.
The FIBT World Championships 2011 took place 14 February – 27 February 2011 in Königssee, Germany, for the fifth time, doing so previously in 1979, 1986, and 1990 (skeleton), and 2004. In 2007, the championships were awarded to Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy over Winterberg Germany, but Cortina withdrew in February 2009 to issues with the city of Cortina.
The Eugenio Monti olympic track is a bobsleigh and skeleton track located in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. It is named after Eugenio Monti (1928–2003), who won six bobsleigh medals at the Winter Olympic Games between 1956 and 1968 and ten medals at the FIBT World Championships between 1957 and 1966. It was featured in the 1981 James Bond film For Your Eyes Only, held after the 1981 FIBT World Championships, before the track was shortened to its current configuration. In January 2008, after a last bobsleigh race tournament, the track was closed.
Ivo Ferriani is an Italian sports official and bobsledder. In September 2010, he was elected President of the Fédération Internationale de Bobsleigh et de Tobogganing (FIBT), ending the 16-year presidency of Canada's Robert H. Storey. In 2016, Ferriani became a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
