Canada withdraws from dangerous German bobsled track

JAN. 6 UPDATE: Citing track safety, Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton pulled all of its bobsledders out of this weekend's Altenberg world cup after the Jan. 5 crash that seriously injured pilot Chris Spring.

“This is a highly technical track that has a history of crashes,” said head coach Tom De La Hunty in a Jan. 6 Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton news release. “I reviewed the corner this morning, and the track crew simply replaced the piece of wooden board that was damaged. Repairs to the corner were not enhanced, or done to an acceptable safety standard so there are no guarantees the same thing cannot happen again.”

“My ultimate responsibility is the health and safety of the team of athletes I represent,” De La Hunty said. “I am simply not comfortable sending them down this track under these conditions, and I am confident this is the right decision for the best interest of our entire team and national program.”

Spring is a 27-year-old newcomer to the German track where he crashed, according to statistics on the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation website.

Spring and teammates Graeme Rinholm of Saskatoon and Bill Thomas of Queensville, Ont. suffered serious injuries at turn 16 of the Altenberg course on the last day of training before the world cup. Toronto’s Tim Randall had only minor injuries.

Spring, who was airlifted to Dresden University Hospital, suffered a broken nose and serious cuts and bruises. Thomas has bruised lungs and minor trauma. Rinholm has a broken fibula, cuts to his upper legs, buttocks and underlying musculature.

“All of the athletes are resting comfortably, there is no life threatening injuries,” said Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton chief executive Don Wilson from Calgary in a Jan. 5 media conference call.

“The major injuries were quite a severe laceration to the buttock and upper leg area; obviously in the position they’re sitting in debris in the sled ended up cutting them, and in the pilot’s case, ending up in him.”

Wilson said Spring lost a substantial amount of blood because he was the last person extracted from the heavily damaged sled. Fears that Spring suffered a punctured lung or broken ribs were unfounded.

“The German medical people have gone through CT scans and ruled those out,” Wilson said.

Darwin, Australia-native Spring earned bobsledding in 2008 in Calgary and slid for Australia at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics before joining Canada full-time last season. He was 14th in the four-man event and 19th in two-man at the 2011 world championships in Konigssee, Germany. Spring piloted Canada to 10th place despite a snowstorm in the Dec. 18 world cup race at Winterberg, Germany. He was preparing for his first world cup appearance at Altenberg when the crash happened. The 1986-opened track, renovated for the 2012 luge world championships, is considered one of the most difficult on the international circuit.

Canadian high performance director Nathan Cicoria said from Calgary on Jan. 5 that the sled exited the corner at the wrong angle and traveled in an upwards trajectory before hitting a wall. He said he had not seen video footage of the crash but denied limits on training runs contributed to the crash. Teams are supposed to get six runs over three days before the two competition runs.

“We’re not getting into conversations about whose fault it is or whether or not it is a function of the race organizers -- it’s a risky sport,” Cicoria said. “You always want to have more training runs and want to be more prepared, but we felt this crew was at world class-calibre and they were competing at that level. Chris’s results to date reflect that. We need to make sure that we’re focussed on their daily condition versus who's to blame here.”

BCS scheduled a midday teleconference on Jan. 6 to offer more details. Canada's skeleton team will remain in the Altenberg competition. Bobsledders will resume wold cup competition Jan. 13-15 in Konigssee.

Whistler Sliding Centre, the 2010 Olympic track, hosts the world cup tour Feb. 2-4. The tour moves to Calgary for the Feb. 9-11 races and ends with the world championship at Lake Placid, N.Y. Feb. 17-19 and 24-26.

After last month's luge world cup, the Whistler Sliding Centre launched bobsled rides for tourists. The track was the site of the fatal crash of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili on the opening day of the 2010 Winter Games. Actual speeds on the track were faster than design estimates, but VANOC made no major pre-Games safety changes. The British Columbia coroner ruled Kumaritashvili's death an accident but ordered a safety audit of the track.

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