Winter sports Intentional braking
Absurd scenes take place in the Toboggan World Cup
As of: 3:25 p.m. | Reading time: 3 minutes
“It’s more poker than tobogganing,” said German toboggan star Felix Loch about the conditions on the now rain-soaked tracks
Source: picture alliance/dpa/Robert Michael
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Lugers actually want to be as fast as possible. Recently, however, more and more world-class athletes have been seen deliberately braking. This leads to grotesque journeys, but it follows a calculation. The world association is looking for solutions to the problem.
For decades, the tobogganers fought for every thousandth of a second. Whether in the setting of the sleds, in the choice of running rails, in the aerodynamics of the suits and helmets, even in the shoes, there was some tinkering. Now suddenly crazy scenes can be seen in the ice channel. Due to the capricious weather in the last few weeks, we have to slow down in order to be able to win the second run on the artificial ice rinks, which are more like water slides, with better starting numbers. The best in the first run start last – but the track gets worse with each ride.
“That was more poker than tobogganing,” complained three-time Olympic champion Felix Loch at the World Cup in Oberhof. Max Langenhan, the confident leader in the World Cup, admitted before the next race at the weekend in Thuringia that he had also braked: “It’s a shame for the sport, but you want to win and then you’ll do everything for it.”
Like him, some athletes also slowed down in the first run with their feet on the ice or made deliberate mistakes. The appearance of the fast-paced sport is suffering. That’s why the athletes are demanding changes – the world association Fil is looking for solutions. “Bending it so that it can cope with the adverse conditions is difficult. I just have to cope with the circumstances,” said Fil sports director Matthias Böhmer. You can do a lot more with the set-up when tobogganing than, for example, with bobsleigh or skeleton. But he also knows: “We have to get the regulations in such a way that the best comes out for the sport.”
“What is still normal in terms of climate today?”
He has to find the balance so as not to let it become a political problem. After all, he has to take into account the interests of 52 countries. “If we fundamentally change the regulations, then it will go through all instances: first to the executive branch, then to Congress for a vote,” said the 33-year-old Böhmer, who was once a luger and then a bobsleigh pilot.
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He also has difficulty making “ad hoc decisions that could have far-reaching consequences. We have to rethink the overall concept, in theory we are flexible,” he said. The world association is not afraid of new ideas. At the World Cup finals in Sigulda/Latvia at the beginning of March, the one-on-one competitions will take place for the first time with the heats on Saturday and then the finals on Sunday. The team relay is the final highlight.
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The race calendar and travel routes are now also coordinated with the location and the expected temperatures. “But what is still normal in terms of climate today?” asked Böhmer. “If we have regions with 15 to 20 degrees, we have to look at the location to see whether it makes sense.” After all, the start of the season has already been moved to December, whereas it used to start in November.
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And everything is already being made possible on the railways. “Whether it’s the cooling systems, the use of weather protection sails, the cancellation of precursors and the shortening of the race intervals for the individual runners, we do everything that is humanly possible,” said Böhmer. Things went well for the women, the doubles and the team relay, but for the men the race became a lottery as the rain became heavier.
Before the World Cup this weekend in Oberhof, we are anxiously looking at the weather forecast. The high temperatures are not the biggest problem, said Heiko Krause, the technical manager of the Oberhof winter sports center. Getting the rainwater out of the path is much more difficult. If it only rains lightly, this is manageable, said Krause.
But this does not solve the general problem, especially since it does not only affect the railway in Oberhof. The athletes had a similar experience at the World Cup in Altenberg two weeks ago. Regardless of the specifications of the broadcasting TV channels or the schedule, which leaves little room for maneuver with more and more disciplines, solutions are urgently needed.
