The Olympic Sliding Centre Innsbruck is a venue for bobsleigh, luge and skeleton located in Igls, Austria (southeast of Innsbruck). 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. [1] It hosted the bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton competitions for the 2012 Winter Youth Olympics. [2]
In 1935, Igls hosted the two-man event of the world bobsleigh championships when the track ran from Römerstrasses to the Patscherkofel valley railroad station. [1] [3] Several fatal accidents at the finishing curve occurred during competition, causing temporarily closure of the track until safety measures were introduced. [1] In 1960, Innsbruck was awarded the 1964 Winter Olympics which led to the construction of separate bobsleigh and luge tracks for the games. [4] Track construction began in September 1961 and was officially completed in July 1963 following test runs of both tracks, including twenty injuries during the 1963 FIBT World Championships on the bobsleigh track. [4] [5] Prior to the start of the 1964 Winter Olympics, British luger Kazimierz Kay-Skrzypeski was killed in a training run on the luge course. [6] When Denver, Colorado, in the United States withdrew in 1972 after being awarded the 1976 Winter Olympics two years earlier for financial reasons, the International Olympic Committee offered the games to 1976 runner-up Whistler, British Columbia in Canada (northeast of Vancouver), but Whistler declined in the wake of the provincial elections in 1972. As a result, the IOC gave the games to Innsbruck. Construction on a new, combined track was started in 1973 under the auspices of the International Bobsleigh and Tobogganing Federation (FIBT) and the International Luge Federation (FIL) and completed the following year. [1] [7] The track was praised by the FIL during testing in 1975 [8] and proved so successful that it fostered a commission with the FIBT and the FIL on construction of combination tracks in 1977 that continues to this day. [9] (Known as homologation, an example of this dual certification process occurred prior to the 2006 Winter Olympics, when adjustments to the track at Cesana Pariol were made following FIL concerns about the run. [10] [11] ) The track added a restaurant and was extended in 1981. [1] In 1990–1, the ladies start house at the fifth turn was renovated and the finishing stretch was extended in 1998. [1] The track was part of the OlympiaWorld-Innsbruck in 2004, the same year a general refurbishment was done on the concrete shell. [1] Today, it serves as a training facility for new bobsledders and skeleton racers. [12] It hosted the bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton events for the 2012 Winter Youth Olympics. [2]
| Sport [1] [7] | Length of track (meters) | Number of turns | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bobsleigh, skeleton, and Luge - men's singles | 1270 | 14 | 14 |
| Luge - women's singles & men's doubles [7] [13] | 870 | 10 | 8.5% |
The track has a vertical drop of 98.1 meters. [12]
The 1964 Winter Olympic bobsleigh track, designed by former bobsledder and luger Paul Aste, consisted of 14 turns with a total length of 1506.36 meters, a vertical drop of 138 meters, and a maximum grade of 14.04%. [4]
| Turn Number | Name (German) | Translated name |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Startkurve | "Start curve" |
| 2., 3. | Hohes S | "High S" curves |
| 4. | Stützenkurve | "Support curve" |
| 5. | Höcker | "Peak" curve |
| 6. | Fuchsloch | "Fox hole" |
| 7. | Hohle Gasses | "Hollow lane" |
| 8. | Schanze | "Dig" |
| 9. | Hexenkessel | "Witch's pot" |
| 10. - 11. | Nadelöhr | "Needle-eye" S curves |
| 12. | Burlepautz | |
| 13. | Weckauf | "Wake on" |
| 14. | Zielkurve | "Finish curve" |
The 1964 Winter Olympic luge track, designed by former bobsledder and luger Paul Aste, consisted of 18 turns with a total length of 1063.76 meters for men singles and a vertical drop of 113.20 meters, and a maximum grade of 18.18%. [4] For women's singles and men's doubles, the length was 910.00 meters with a vertical drop of 86.27 meters [4]
| Turn Number | Name (German) | Translated name |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Startkurve | |
| 2., 3. | Labyrinth | Two turns in quick succession without a straight (labyrinth) |
| 4. | Waldkurve | "Wood curve" |
| 5. | Stoßwand | "Impact wall" |
| 6. | Gletscherblick | "Glacier view" |
| 7. | Hängematte | "Hammock" |
| 8. | Wasserschlupf | "Water slip" |
| 9. | Promenade | "Promenade" |
| 10. | Fuchsloch | |
| 11. | Koflkehre | - |
| 12. | Schoß | "Shot" |
| 13. - 14. | Mausfalle | "Mouse case" |
| 15. | Olympiakurve | "Olympic curve" |
| 16. | Wassertrog | "Water trough" |
| 17. | Zielgerade | "Finish line curve" |
| 18. | Zielkurve |
| Turn Number | Name | Reason named |
|---|---|---|
| 4., 5., 6. | Upper labyrinth | Three turns in quick succession without a straight (labyrinth) |
| 7. | Kreisel | 270-degree Kreisel (circular) curve |
| 11., 12., 13. | Lower labyrinth | Three turns in quick succession without a straight (labyrinth) |
Turns 1–3, 8-10, 14, and 15 have no names listed in the track diagram. [7]
| Sport | Record | Nation - athlete(s) | Date | Time (seconds) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bobsleigh two-woman [14] | Start |  Canada - Kaillie Humphries & Heather Moyse | 22 January 2010 | 5.50 |
| Bobsleigh two-woman [14] | Track |  United States - Shauna Rohbock & Michelle Rzepka | 22 January 2010 | 53.47 |
| Luge - men's singles [15] | Start | Johannes Ludwig -  Germany | 29 November 2009 | 3.865 |
| Luge - men's singles [15] | Track | David Möller - Germany | 29 November 2008 | 48.533 |
| Luge - women's singles [15] | Start | Tatjana Hüfner - Germany | 28 November 2009 | 2.003 |
| Luge - women's singles [15] | Track | Natalie Geisenberger - Germany | 28 November 2009 | 39.569 |
| Luge - men's doubles [15] | Start |  Austria - Markus Schiegl & Tobias Schiegl | 29 November 2008 | 1.927 |
| Luge - men's doubles [15] | Track | Germany - Patric Leitner & Alexander Resch | 28 November 2009 | 39.278 |
| Skeleton - men [16] | Track | Martins Dukurs -  Latvia | 3 December 2011 | 52.69 |
| Skeleton - woman [17] | Start | Courtney Yamada - United States Amy Williams -  United Kingdom | 12 December 2008 | 5.33 |
| Skeleton - women [17] | Track | Shelley Rudman - United Kingdom | 12 December 2008 | 54.65 |
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The International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (IBSF) is the international sports federation for the sliding sports of Bobsleigh and Skeleton. 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.
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Renato Hiromi Gimenez Mizoguchi is a Brazilian luger who competed from 2001 to 2005. He is best known for his severe injuries suffered during the homologation process of Cesana Pariol, the bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton track for the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, in January 2005. Mizoguchi's injuries led to a donation set up by the International Luge Federation (FIL) in Germany to pay for his expenses and also to track modifications after discussion both by the FIL and the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation during 2005 with approval finally reached in October of that year.
For the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria, a total of eight sports venues were used. The games were originally awarded to Denver, Colorado in the United States in 1970, but they withdrew in the wake of Colorado residents voting against it for environmental and cost reasons in November 1972. This led to the International Olympic Committee opening up the bids for the games again, eventually awarding them to Innsbruck in February 1973. The Austrian city, having hosted the Winter Olympics in 1964, was in the process of having the venues used for those Games before Denver's with clear cutting of the alpine skiing venues, lessening of the amount of cross-country skiing routes, upgrading the ski jumps, adding lighting in the indoor sports arena to accommodate color television, and the construction of a combination bobsleigh and luge track. After the 1976 Games, the venues have remained in use, hosting events in Nordic skiing and the sliding sports. They hosted some of the events for the Winter Universiade in 2005 and seven of the eight venues served as host for the first Winter Youth Olympic Games in 2012.
