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.

2010goldrush@gmail.com

Luge slides back to 2010 Olympics venue

Felix Loch has mastered the Whistler Sliding Centre.

The German won the Olympic gold medal at the track during the 2010 Games and he was atop the podium again Dec. 9 during the second International Luge Federation world cup stop of the 2011-2012 season.

Loch’s combined time of 1:36.48 was 0.278 better than fellow German Johannes Ludwig. David Moller, the 2010 Olympics silver medallist, completed the German podium sweep.

“I like the fast track here, the start is good for me, it's not too steep. It's good for all Germans. The sled was today very fast,” Loch said. “The track became more safe, those nations that are not on the level of Germany, they are learning and getting better on this track.”

Calgary's Sam Edney was fifth in 1:37.061. Edney's seventh-place in the Olympics at Whistler was a best for a Canadian in men’s singles.

“Five Germans and a Canadian (among the last six) -- it's clear to me where they have that edge, at the start,” Edney said. “This has got to be the best track in the world. The feeling you get when you're sliding down you can't express it, the speed and that feeling of that adrenaline rush. Hearing the crowd as you're sliding down is one of the coolest things you can ever feel as you're sliding.”

Italy's Armin Zoggeler, the 2002 and 2006 Olympic champion and bronze medallist in 2010, was a disappointing 13th.

The first FIL world cup in Whistler was in 2009 when Moller won gold, Zoggeler silver and Loch bronze. Ludwig was fourth and Edney 12th.

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In the men's doubles, 2010 Olympic champions Andreas and Wolfgang Linger of Austria won gold, beating countrymen Peter Penz and Georg Fischler by 0.244. Italians Christian Obsertotz and Patrick Gruber were third.

Linger and Linger established a doubles track record of 41.255 seconds. Penz and Fischler, however, are FIL leaders after two rounds of the nine-stop World Cup tour, which continues next weekend in Calgary. The Lingers are second.

Canada's Tristan Walker and Justin Smith were 10th.

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No sliders from Georgia have competed in the first two rounds of the FIL world cup. But Georgia’s flag was displayed in memory of Nodar Kumaritashvili.

The 21-year-old died after crashing near the end of his last training run on Feb. 12, 2010, the opening day of the 2010 Winter Olympics. A small flag marks the spot where the tragedy happened.

A bigger flag is outside the track offices, near the Olympic podium.

The start area for women’s races continues to be used, as it was the day after Kumaritashvili’s crash. A safety audit ordered by the British Columbia Coroners Service was conducted by the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology. The results are expected to be made public in the first quarter of 2012.

During the summer of 2010, concrete on curves 12 to 16 was modified with the blessing of FIL and the International Bobsled and Skeleton Federation. More changes are coming.

Whistler Sliding Centre begins its second season of public skeleton rides on Dec. 16. On Dec. 22, it launches a public bobsled program. The two-hour courses are $149. The bobsled experience includes professional pilots. Retired Canadian legend Pierre Lueders, the 1998 Olympic champion and two-time world champion, will be among the guest pilots this winter.

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The official attendance wasn’t announced. In diplomatic terms, other things must have occupied the collective interest of Whistler locals and visitors. There were more athletes and reporters at the end of the track than there were fans.
Whistler is host of the 2013 world championships.