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:
“Grammar is a tricky, inconsistent thing. Being the backbone of speech and writing, it should, we think, be eminently logical, make perfect sense, like the human skeleton. But, of course, the skeleton is arbitrary, too. Why twelve pairs of ribs rather than eleven or thirteen? Why thirty-two teeth? It has something to do with evolution and functionalism—but only sometimes, not always. So there are aspects of grammar that make good, logical sense, and others that do not.”
—John Simon (b. 1925)
“The most difficult crime to track is the one which is purposeless.”
—Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930)