Bobsleigh

Bobsleigh, also called bobsled, is a winter sport in which individual athletes or teams of two to four make timed speed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sleigh. The first bobsleds were built in the late 19th century in St. Moritz, Switzerland, by wealthy Victorian British tourists staying at the Palace Hotel, adapting boys delivery sleds and toboggans, which eventually evolved into bobsleighs, luges and skeletons. After collisions on the town streets led to a ban on public highways, the Cresta Run became the oldest track in the world. Modern teams combine the times of several runs to decide the winners. The four-man event has been held at almost every Winter Games since Chamonix in 1924, the two-man event was added in 1932, a two-woman event in 2002 and the women monobob in 2022. International competition is governed by the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation.