There are many exciting and unusual winter sports. They can be both team and personal. Among personal winter competitions, bobsleigh stands out. This sport is incredibly entertaining. In bobsled, fractions of a second determine the winner and the loser.
Bobsleigh owes its origin to the English traveler Wilson Smith - it was he who invented to connect the sled with a board, because it was more convenient for travel. But Switzerland is considered the homeland of bobsleigh, as an Englishman traveled on a special sleigh, in this country.
Modern bobsleigh is a race on special ice tracks, down which is carried out on an aerodynamic sled. The sleds are equipped with steering and braking control systems. They are called "bob", they are controlled by means of the front movable runners. When creating a bob, lightweight, but ultra-strong materials are used. It is the "beans" that are a kind of ice high-speed machine in which the participants of the competition are. This is the difference between bobsleigh and skeleton and other toboggan sports.
"Beans", which are used in competitions in modern times - two and four-seater. The crew of a four-seater bob includes: the helmsman (aka the team captain), pushers and braking.
Ice slopes vary in difficulty - it depends on the steepness of the descent and turns. The descent speed can reach 160 km / h, the length of the descent is up to 2 kilometers, the slope is up to 15 degrees. The winner in the competition is the one who passes the track faster.
The year of the appearance of bobsleigh is considered to be 1888. The competition began in 1908, and in 1924 it became an Olympic sport. In addition to the Olympics, specialized world championships in luge sports are held, in which racers on "bean" compete.
