Bobsleigh, Luge, and Skeleton Track
Constructed in 1930 for the 1932 Winter Olympics, the track was the first bobsleigh track located outside of Europe. In 1949, it hosted the FIBT World Championships, also the first outside of Europe. The original bobsleigh track was demolished in 1978 to pave the way for an artificial track for the 1980 Winter Olympics with a separate luge track being constructed for those same games. The luge track was the first luge track in North America when it was completed in 1979. In 1983, the luge track was the first venue to host the FIL World Luge Championships outside of Europe. Both tracks were demolished in the late 1990s and a combination track was constructed in early 2000 in time for the only Winter Goodwill Games. The track is a regular venue for World Cup competitions in bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton. In 2009, the track will become the first combination track to host the bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton world championships in a non-Winter Olympic year.
The current track is 1455 meters long with 20 curves and an average grade of 9.8%.
Read more about this topic: Lake Placid Olympic Sports Complex
Famous quotes containing the words skeleton and/or track:
“The bone-frame was made for
no such shock knit within terror,
yet the skeleton stood up to it:
the flesh? it was melted away,
the heart burnt out, dead ember,
tendons, muscles shattered, outer husk dismembered....”
—Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961)
“The universe constantly and obediently answers to our conceptions; whether we travel fast or slow, the track is laid for us. Let us spend our lives in conceiving then. The poet or the artist never yet had so fair and noble a design but some of his posterity at least could accomplish it.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)