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.
Maya Pedersen-Bieri is a Swiss-Norwegian skeleton racer who has competed since 1995. She won the gold medal in the women's skeleton event at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin. She retired from the sport in 2010 before returning to compete for Norway in 2016, becoming at the oldest woman to start a World Cup race when she returned to the top level of skeleton in 2017. She is listed in the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation athlete registration system as Maya Pedersen.
Shelley Rudman is a former skeleton bobsleigh athlete. She was the 2013 world champion in the event, won an Olympic silver medal at the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in skeleton and is a former World Cup and European champion.
Helen Lesley Upperton is a Canadian bobsledder who has competed since 2002. Upperton was born in Ahmadi, Kuwait as her parents involvement in the oil industry meant they traveled abroad. She holds dual citizenship of both Great Britain and Canada. Upperton won the silver medal at the 2010 Winter Olympics after previously finishing fourth in the two-woman event at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin. In 2020 Upperton won a Canadian Screen Award for “Best Sports Analyst” for her coverage of the Bobsleigh World Championship event with Mark Lee. She went to high school at Dr. E.P. Scarlett High School and graduated from the University of Texas in Austin with a BSc.
Heather Moyse is a Canadian athlete and two-time Olympic gold medalist, representing Canada in international competition as a bobsledder, rugby union player, and track cyclist and competing at the Canadian intercollegiate level in rugby, soccer and track and field.
Sandra Kiriasis is a German retired bobsledder who has competed from 2000 to 2014.
Noelle Pikus-Pace is an American retired skeleton racer who began her career in 2001. She won five medals at the FIBT World Championships, competed in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, and won the silver medal in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
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 2008 ran February 11–24, 2008 in Altenberg, Germany for the fifth time, having done so in 1991 (bobsleigh), 1994 (skeleton), 1999 (skeleton), and 2000. It is the first time Altenberg has hosted all of those events at one championship, and also includes the mixed team event that debuted at the 2007 championships. Training for the events took place February 12–14 for two-man and two-woman bobsleigh, and February 19–20 for skeleton and four-man bobsleigh.
The Olympic Sliding Centre Innsbruck is a venue for bobsleigh, luge and skeleton located in Igls, Austria. The most recent version of the track was completed in 1975 and is the first permanent, combination artificially refrigerated bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton track, serving as a model for other tracks of its kind worldwide. It hosted the bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton competitions for the 2012 Winter Youth Olympics.
Oskars Melbārdis is a former Latvian bobsledder who has competed since 2006. He is the most successful bobsledder in the history of his country, having 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.
Kaillie Humphries is a Canadian-American bobsledder. Representing Canada, she was the 2010 and 2014 Olympic champion in the two-woman bobsled and the 2018 Olympic bronze medalist with brakewoman Phylicia George. With her victory in 2014, she became the first female bobsledder to defend her Olympic title and was named flagbearer for the Olympic closing ceremony with brakewoman Heather Moyse.
The women's skeleton at the 2006 Winter Olympics took place on 16 February, at the Cesana Pariol.
The men's skeleton event at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, took place at the Whistler Sliding Centre on 18–19 February. Canada's Duff Gibson was the defending Olympic champion. Gibson retired after the 2006 Olympics. Switzerland's Gregor Stähli, the defending Olympic bronze medalist was the defending world champion, but did not compete due to a thigh injury sustained during the World Cup event in Lake Placid, New York, on 20 November 2009. The test event held at the venue was won by Jon Montgomery of Canada. The last World Cup event prior to the 2010 Games took place in Igls, Austria, on 23 January 2010 and was won by Latvia's Martins Dukurs who also won the overall World Cup title.
The women's skeleton event at the 2010 Winter Olympics took place at the Whistler Sliding Centre on 18–19 February. The competition was won by British athlete Amy Williams, who set new course records for the track on her first and third runs. Williams, who had never before won a World Cup or World Championship event, became the first British athlete to win a solo Winter Olympic gold medal in 30 years. German sliders Kerstin Szymkowiak and Anja Huber won the silver and bronze medals respectively. Williams' teammate Shelley Rudman, who had won the silver medal at the 2006 Winter Olympics, and Canadian Mellisa Hollingsworth, both of whom had been expected to be in medal contention, were disappointed.
Great Britain, represented by the British Olympic Association (BOA), competed in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and sent a team of selected athletes was officially known as Team GB. The team was made up of athletes from the whole United Kingdom including Northern Ireland, whose athletes may elect to hold Irish citizenship, allowing them to represent either Great Britain or Ireland. Additionally some British overseas territories compete separately from Britain in Olympic competition.
Astrid Loch-Wilkinson , also known as Astrid Radjenovic, is an Australian bobsledder who has competed since 2003.
Dominic Edward Parsons is a British former skeleton racer. He won a bronze medal at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, and also competed at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. He retired from the sport at the end of 2019.
Yun Sung-Bin is a South Korean skeleton racer. He won the gold medal in men's skeleton at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang and was a participant at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
Jacqueline "Jacka" Lölling is a German skeleton racer who has won numerous races and championships, including the inaugural Winter Youth Olympics skeleton competition in 2012 and the 2017 World Championships. She began competing in skeleton at the age of 12, and was selected to the German national team in 2009. She won her first two international races, as a fifteen-year-old on the Europe Cup circuit, at Cesana Pariol in 2010. Her personal coach is Kathi Wichterle, and she rides an FES sled. When not racing, Lölling works for the German Federal Police.
