Bobsleigh

A modern bobsleigh team, the 2010 United States top two-man team.
Highest governing body	Fédération Internationale de Bobsleigh et de Tobogganing
Nickname(s)	Bobsled, King's class
First played	1870s
Characteristics
Contact	None
Team members	Teams of 2 or 4
Mixed gender	Yes, but usually in separate competitions
Categorization	Winter sport, Time trial
Equipment	High-tech sled, Helmet
Venue	Bobsleigh tracks

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Bobsleigh or bobsled is a winter sport in which teams of two or four make timed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sled. The timed runs are combined to calculate the final score.

The various types of sleds came several years before the first tracks were built in St. Moritz, Switzerland, where the original bobsleds were adapted upsized luge/skeleton sleds designed by the adventurously wealthy to carry passengers. All three types were adapted from boys delivery sleds and toboggans.

Competition naturally followed, and to protect the working class and rich visitors in the streets and byways of St Moritz, hotel owner Caspar Badrutt, owner of the historic Krup Hotel and the later Palace Hotel, built the first familiarly configured 'half-pipe' track circa 1870. It has hosted the sports during two Olympics and is still in use today.

International bobsleigh competitions are governed by the Fédération Internationale de Bobsleigh et de Tobogganing (FIBT). National competitions are often governed by bodies such as the United States Bobsled and Skeleton Federation and Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton.

History[link]

The Swiss bobsleigh team from Davos, ca. 1910.

An East German bobsleigh in 1951, Oberhof track, Germany.

Although sledding on snow or ice had been popular in many northern countries, bobsleighing is a relatively modern sport. It originates from two crestas (skeleton sleds) being attached together with a board and a steering mechanism being attached to the front cresta. The beginnings of the Bobsleigh were humble, starting when English tourists were enticed to stay over the winter in the mineral spa town of St. Moritz, Switzerland by the successful marketing of hotelier Caspar Badrutt. Badrutt successfully 'sold' the idea of 'winter resorting' to some of his English regulars as he was annoyed with a four month long season for the rooms, food, alcohol and activities he sold. A year or two later some of his more adventurous English guests began adapting boys' delivery sleds for recreation and began colliding with pedestrians whilst speeding down the village's lanes and alleys and roads.

The name comes from participants bobbing back and forth in a ineffective attempt to increase their speed^[1].

This had both short and long term outcomes: in the short term the guests began to scheme about and invent 'steering means' for the sleds, which became the luge, bobsleighs (bobsleds), and head-first skeleton. Long term, after a couple of more years of happy pedestrian peril, Badrutt built a special track for their activities—the world's first natural ice half-pipe track in about 1870. It is still in operation today and has served as a host track during two Winter Olympics. The track is one of the few natural weather tracks in the world - it does not use artificial refrigeration. The satisfied guests eventually enabled him to build the Palace Hotel, while holding onto the popular Krup Hotel (which catered to different clientele) and brought competition in as winter tourism in alpine locales became very popular.^{[citation needed]}

The first informal races were run on snow-covered roads. The opening of formal competition was in 1884 at St. Moritz. It's not known how much the original track evolved in the early years as the three sports matured and stabilized. The first club was formed in 1897, and the first purpose-built track solely for bobsleds was opened in 1902 outside of St Moritz.^{[citation needed]} Over the years, bobsleigh tracks evolved from straight runs to twisting and turning tracks. The original wooden sleds^[2] were replaced by streamlined fiberglass and metal ones.

The Fédération Internationale de Bobsleigh et de Tobogganing (FIBT) was founded in 1923. Men's four man bobsleigh appeared in the first ever Winter Olympic Games in 1924, and men's two man bobsleigh event was added in 1932. Bobsleigh was not included in the 1960 Winter Olympics, but has been in every Winter Olympics since. Women's bobsleigh competition began in the US in 1983 with two demonstration races in Lake Placid, New York, one held in February and the 2nd held during the World Cup races in March 1983. Women's two woman bobsleigh made its Olympic debut at the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. Bobsleigh is also contested at American, European, and World Cup championships.

Switzerland and Germany have been the most successful bobsleighing nations measured by overall success in European, World, World Cup, and Olympic championships. The Swiss have won more medals than any other nation, and since the 1990s Germans have been dominant in international competition. Italy, Austria, USA and Canada also have strong bobsleigh traditions.

Bobsleighs can attain speeds of 150 km/h (93 mph). The record however is 201 km/h (125 mph). A record the United States Bobsled and Skeleton Federation repeatedly rejected as valid due to lack of documentation that still need to be presented.

Tracks[link]

Altenberg track, Germany.

Modern tracks are made of concrete, coated with ice. They are required to have at least one straight section and one labyrinth (three turns in quick succession without a straight section). Ideally, a modern track should be 1200 to 1300 meters long and have at least fifteen curves. Speeds may exceed 120 km/h, and some curves can subject the crews to as much as 5 g.

Some bobsleigh tracks are also used for luge and skeleton competition.

Some tracks offer tourists rides in bobsleighs, including those at Sigulda, Latvia; Innsbruck-Igls, Austria; Calgary, Canada; Whistler, Canada; Lillehammer, Norway; Cesana Pariol, Italy; Lake Placid, USA; Salt Lake City, USA and La Plagne, France.

The most famous of all the turns is the 'Petersen'. The Petersen is renowned for its trademark 180 degree turn and 270 degree bank angle, which is a compulsory feature on all Winter Olympic runs. The Petersen is named after the pioneer track designer Heidi Petersen.

Sleighs and crews[link]

Team USA on a wall, Shauna Rohbock (pilot) and Valerie Fleming (brakes) during their 2006 silver run on Cesana Pariol, Italy.

Modern day sleighs combine light metals, steel runners, and an aerodynamic composite body. Competition sleighs must be a maximum of 3.80 m (12.5 ft) long (4-crew) or 2.70 m (8.9 ft) long (2-crew). The runners on both are set at 0.67 m (2.2 ft) gauge. Until the weight-limit rule was added in 1952, bobsleigh crews tended to be very heavy to ensure the greatest possible speed. Now, the maximum weight, including crew, is 630 kg (1,388.9 lbs) (4-man), 390 kg (859.8 lbs) (2-man), or 340 kg (749.6 lbs) (2-woman), which can be reached via the addition of metal weights.

Bobsleigh crews once consisted of five or six people, but were reduced to two- and four-person sleighs in the 1930s. A crew is made up of a pilot, a brakeman, and, only in 4-man heats, two pushers. Athletes are selected based on their speed and strength, which are necessary to push the sleigh to a competitive speed at the start of the race. Pilots must have the skill, timing, and finesse to steer the sleigh along the path, or, 'line', that will produce the greatest speed.

In modern bobsleighs, the steering system consists of two metal rings that actuate a pulley system located in the forward cowling that turns the front runners. For example, to turn left, the pilot would pull the left ring. Only subtle steering adjustments are necessary to guide the sled; at speeds up to 80mph, anything larger would result in a crash. While the pilot does most of the steering, the crew can also lean into curves to aid in steering the sled, and, by pulling the sled's brake lever, the brakeman stops the sled after crossing the finish.

Women compete in Women's Bobsleigh (which is always two-woman), and men in both two and four-man competitions.^[3]

Races[link]

USA-1 in heat 3 of 4 man bobsleigh at 2010 Winter Olympics 2010-02-27

Vonetta Flowers (left) and Spc. Jill Bakken power up in the push zone for their 80-mile-an-hour ride down the Winter Olympic bobsledding track. Bakken, the driver, and Flowers, the brakeman, won the first gold medal presented in Olympic women's bobsledding.

Individual runs down the course, or 'heats', begin from a standing start, with the crew pushing the sled for up to 50 meters before boarding; though the pilot does not steer, grooves in the ice make steering unnecessary until the sled leaves the starting area. While poor form during the initial can lose a team the heat, it is otherwise rarely, if ever, decisive. Over the rest of the course, a sleigh's speed depends on its weight, aerodynamics, runners, the condition of the ice, and the skill of the driver.

Race times are recorded in hundredths of seconds, so even seemingly minor errors- especially those at the beginning, which affect the remainder of the heat- can have a measurable impact on the final race standings.

The men's and women's standings for normal races are calculated over the aggregate of two runs or heats. At the Olympic Winter Games and World Championships, all competitions (for both men and women) consist of four heats.

Olympic Medal table[link]

Four man[link]

Current Olympic champion:  United States (USA)  Germany (GER)  Canada (CAN)

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Germany	8	4	6	18
2	Switzerland	5	5	5	15
3	United States	4	4	3	11
4	Italy	1	2	1	4
5	Austria	1	2	0	3
6	Canada	1	0	1	2
7	Great Britain	0	1	2	3
8	Belgium	0	1	1	2
8	Russia	0	1	1	2
10	France	0	0	1	1
Total		20	20	21	61

Two man[link]

Current Olympic champion:  Germany (GER)  Germany (GER)  Russia (RUS)

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Germany	7	8	4	19
2	Switzerland	4	5	6	15
3	Italy	3	2	2	7
4	United States	2	1	3	6
5	Canada	1	1	0	2
6	Russia	1	0	2	3
7	Great Britain	1	0	0	1
8	Romania	0	0	1	1
Total		19	17	18	54

Two woman[link]

Current Olympic champion:  Canada (CAN)  Canada (CAN)  United States (USA)

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Germany	1	1	1	3
1	United States	1	1	1	3
3	Canada	1	1	0	2
4	Italy	0	0	1	1
Total		3	3	3	9

Total Olympic Ranking (2010)[link]

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Germany	16	13	11	40
2	Switzerland	9	10	11	30
3	United States	7	6	7	20
4	Italy	4	4	4	12
5	Canada	3	2	1	6
6	Austria	1	2	0	3
7	Russia	1	1	3	5
8	Great Britain	1	1	2	4
9	Belgium	0	1	1	2
10	France	0	0	1	1
10	Romania	0	0	1	1
Total		42	40	41	123

Fatal accidents[link]

This section requires expansion.

No	Competitor	Year	Track	Section	Race	Event	Vehicle
	Oberüberl	1911			Practice run		5-man sled
	Karl Gerloff	1933	Oberhof		Practice run		4-man sled
	Rudolf Gerloff	1933	Oberhof		Practice run		4-man sled
	Reto Capadrutt	1939	Cortina d'Ampezzo		Practice run	World Championships 1939	4-man sled
	Max Houben	1949	Lake Placid	Shady corner	Practice run	World Championships 1949	2-man sled
	Felix Endrich	1953	Garmisch-Partenkirchen	Bayernkurve	Practice run	World Championships 1953	4-man sled
	Sergio Zardini	1966	Lake Placid	Zig-Zag Curves	Practice run		4-man sled
	Toni Pensperger	1966	Cortina d'Ampezzo		Practice run	World Championships 1966	4-man sled
	Josef Schnellneger	1970	Königssee		Practice run	Austria-Cup	2-man sled
	Luis Lopez	1971	Cervinia		Practice run	World Championships 1971	2-man sled
	Giuseppe Soravia[4]	1980	Igls	Finish	Practice run		4-man sled
	James Morgan[4]	1981	Cortina d'Ampezzo	Finish	Practice run	World Championships 1981	4-man sled
	Paolo Rigon[4]	1981	Cortina d'Ampezzo		Production	For Your Eyes Only (film)
	Imants Karlsons[4]	1982	Igls		Training session	Training	2-man sled
	Daniel Oaida[4]	1989	Altenberg	Curve 4	Training session	Training	4-man sled
41	Peter Förster	1990	Altenberg	Finish	Training session	Training	2-man sled
42	Yvonne Cernota[5][6]	2004	Königssee	Echowand	Training session	Training	2-man sled

See also[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Bobsleigh

Sports and games portal

• List of Bobsleigh World Cup champions
• Luge
• Skeleton
• Toboggan
• Cool Runnings
• Sledding

References[link]

Jana Pittman

Personal information
Full name	Jana Pittman-Rawlinson
Nationality	Australian
Born	(1982-11-09) 9 November 1982 (age 29) Sydney, Australia
Sport
Sport	Running
Event(s)	400 metres, 400 metres hurdles
Medal record Women's athletics Competitor for the  Australia World Championships Gold 2007 Osaka 400 m hurdles Gold 2003 Paris 400 m hurdles Commonwealth Games Gold 2006 Melbourne 400 m hurdles Gold 2006 Melbourne 4×400 m relay Gold 2002 Manchester 400 m hurdles Gold 2002 Manchester 4×400 m relay World Junior Championships Gold 2000 Santiago 400 m Gold 2000 Santiago 400 m hurdles World Youth Championships Gold 1999 Bydgoszcz 400 m hurdles

Jana Pittman-Rawlinson (born 9 November 1982) is an Australian athlete, who specialises in the 400 metres run and 400 metre hurdles events. She is a two-time world champion in the 400 m hurdles, from 2003 and 2007. She also won the gold medal in this event at the 2002 and 2006 Commonwealth Games and was part of Australia's winning 4 × 400 metres relay teams at both events.

Pittman is one of only seven athletes (along with Valerie Adams, Usain Bolt, Veronica Campbell-Brown, Jacques Freitag, Yelena Isinbayeva, and Dani Samuels) to win world championships at the youth, junior, and senior level of an athletic event.

Early career[link]

Pittman attended Matthew Pearce Primary School and Mount Saint Benedict College in North Western Sydney. She is second cousin to diver Melissa Wu.^[1] She competed until April 2006 under her maiden name Pittman, then under her married name Rawlinson, and in 2009, following the breakdown of her marriage, as Pittman-Rawlinson.

Pittman won the 400 m hurdles at the 1999 World Youth Championships in Athletics in Bydgoszcz and became treble champion in 200 m, 400 m and 400 m hurdles at the national championships of that year. In 2000, she became the first woman ever to win the 400 m flat and hurdles double at any IAAF or IOC championships - in this case, the 2000 World Junior Championships in Santiago (Chile).

Knee injury[link]

Just before the Athens Olympics, Pittman tore her cartilage in her right knee during a warm-up for a track meet in Zurich, where she had been favored to win the 400 m hurdles event. After undergoing surgery in London only one week before the start of the games, she ran 5th in the final. ^[2]

Negative public image[link]

On 10 March 2006, quoted in an article in The Sydney Morning Herald, Pittman announced her intention to leave Australia, possibly for the UK, after the negative publicity surrounding her knee and her disagreement with fellow athlete Tamsyn Lewis: "Since Athens, my image is all about drama and I hate it." Pittman said there had been a "mixed" response from the Australian public since the media dubbed their rivalry a "catfight" and a "bitchfight". She related that when she had been walking down the street a week earlier, a group of men in a car yelled out, "We love you, Tamsyn, we hate you, Pitts". "I didn't create that", the 400 m hurdler was quoted as saying. "I didn't want that". She also referenced the current edition of Ralph magazine at the time, in which Lewis posed in a bikini and which carried the tag line on the cover, "It's alright Tam, we don't like Jana Pittman either".

In the buildup to her races at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Pittman was widely reported as being nervous about the possible crowd reaction in the wake of the negative publicity. However, the ovation of the home crowd was loud and long, both before and after the 400 m hurdles Final, and in interviews afterwards Pittman expressed her feelings of relief. The crowd response was strikingly different at a nightclub hosting post-games celebrations, where after an introduction she was booed off the stage.^[3]

2006 Commonwealth Games[link]

At the Melbourne Commonwealth Games Jana Pittman successfully defended her two Commonwealth titles.

4×400 m Relay[link]

As at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, Pittman-Rawlinson was a member of Australia's gold medal-winning 4 x 400 m relay team (with Tamsyn Lewis, Caitlin Willis and Rosemary Hayward). However, the 2006 Aussie team was awarded the gold medal after the disqualification of the England team for a baton-change violation.^[4] Pittman later wrote a letter of apology to the English team and offered her gold medal to them. She blamed the disqualification on Lewis who, alongside Pittman, went up to the officials after the race to point out the violation of Englishwoman Natasha Danvers-Smith of taking an incorrect position on the starting leg.^[5] According to the ABC Sports Desk^[6] the officials were moving to disqualify England anyway. England head coach, Brad McStravick, in an interview with the ABC TV program Offsiders, questioned Pittman's motivation for writing the letter: "I know she is going to spend, well, at least half the year in England and I think some of the girls wondered whether it was just to try and make peace, so that she wouldn't face any animosity once she was living and training in England," he said.^[7]

400 m Hurdles[link]

Pittman won the 400 m hurdles title with a new Games record time of 53.82 seconds. This was her first major championship in the event since her 2004 knee injury and subsequent stress fractures in her back.

Osaka 2007[link]

After delivering Cornelis, Pittman had her wisdom teeth removed and a 10-week injury break with plantar fasciitis. Despite these difficulties, she ran well on the European circuit and comfortably won the 400 m Hurdles at the Osaka World Championships.

She carried a slight injury through her 2007 season, having surgery later in the year to remove loose cartilage and floating bone fragments in the second toe of her right foot.

Pittman was pre-selected for the 2008 Australian Olympic team in late 2007.

Beijing 2008[link]

In January 2008, Pittman was nominated for 'Comeback of the Year' at the Laureus World Sports Awards.

In February 2008, Pittman was quoted as saying she could visualise her win at the Beijing Olympics and that she would run a world record time. But on 9 July 2008, Pittman announced she would not be competing at the Beijing Games, because of the complications with the toe injury.^[8] The Australian subsequently reported that a large number of Australians had "viciously turned against the fallen track star", strongly criticising her.^[9]

Injury problems[link]

On 29 June 2009, Pittman returned to racing after more than a year with a victory in the Grand Prix event at Malaga, Spain. She won the 400 metre hurdles in a time of 55.67 seconds ahead of Ukrainian Anastasiya Rabchenyuk and Janet Wienand of South Africa.^[10] However, she was not fit enough to defend her title at the 2009 World Championships. A hamstring problem caused by bulging disc in her back interrupted her preparation for the tournament, but she was confident of a return, saying "I hope I can recover from this latest setback and get back on track for my long term goal and dream - winning Olympic Gold in London in 2012".^[11]

Another 20 months passed before her return to competition. In April 2011, she beat domestic rival Lauren Boden on the final leg of the Australian Athletics Tour.^[12]

Personal life[link]

In May 2009 it was revealed that Pittman had undergone breast implant surgery.^[13] The following year she announced she'd had the implants removed as they had "affected her running", but would consider having her breasts augmented again once her athletic career was over.^[14]

Marriage to Chris Rawlinson[link]

On 31 March 2006, Pittman married English athlete Chris Rawlinson at Morningstar Estate on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria. Rawlinson, also a specialist 400 m hurdler, coached Jana from 2004–2009. On 14 December 2006 she gave birth to the couple's first child, son Cornelis Levi. She later stated that she had gone for a hard twenty-minute run on the morning of the birth and "felt like a whale".

In April 2009 it was announced that Pittman and Rawlinson has separated after three years of marriage and in May 2009 she returned to training under Craig Hilliard who had previously coached her.^[15] In an interview on 24 October 2009 her new role as a single mother was described as "Jana's toughest hurdle".^[16]

In January 2010 it was announced that Pittman had been reconciled with Rawlinson and that they would remarry.^[14] On 31 March 2010, Pittman remarried Rawlinson in England, wearing an unconventional red wedding dress.^[17] However, on 16 April 2011 it was announced that Pittman and Rawlinson had split again.^[18]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Jana Pittman Official Website
• Athletics Australia profile
• Jana Rawlinson Pictures
• Icarus, Phoenix or Bumblebee: Jana's future flight path
• Awards and Biography
• SMH - Pittman to quit Australia
• Herald Sun - Jana takes drama abroad
• The Australian - Queen of Hearts
• Melbourne 2006 Official Site, final day Athletics news
• Herald Sun - Club turns on Pittman
• ABC: The Sports Desk - 'Blushing Bride'.
• The Age - 6 Aussie nominations for sports gongs
• IAAF Diaries: Jana Rawlinson
• SMH - It's all in her mind
• Japan looms as ideal base for Jana