Steve Gann
Sandra 12010 Winters Olympics Guide: Luge
February 12th 2010 06:16
:
2010 Winters Olympics Guide: Luge
Luge events at the 2010 Olympics will take place between February the 13th and 17th. Medals will be rewarded in men and women's singles and doubles categories.
History:
Luge, like the skeleton, and the bobsled, originated in the health-spa town of St Moritz, Switzerland, in the mid-to-late nineteenth century, through the endeavours of hotel entrepreneur Caspar Badrutt. Badrutt successfully sold the idea of winter resorting, as well as rooms with food, drink, and activities. His more adventurous English guests began adapting delivery boys' sleds for recreation, which led to collisions with pedestrians as they sped down the lanes and alleys of the village. This had two outcomes: in the short term the guests began to devise methods of steering the sleds, and so invented the skeleton (head first, prone), the luge (feet first, supine), and the two- and four-man bobsleighs. In the long term, in the interests of pedestrian safety, he built a thing special track for his guests' activities the world's first "half-pipe", in about 1870. The track is still in use today; it has been used as a venue in two Olympiads, and is one of the few natural weather tracks that do not depend on artificial refrigeration. Its success eventually enabled Badrutt to build the Palace Hotel; he was able to retain the popular Krup Hotel, which catered for different clientèle and brought in competition as Alpine winter tourism increased in popularity.
The first organized meeting of the sport took place in 1883 in Switzerland. In 1913, the Internationale Schlittensportverband or International Sled Sports Federation, was founded in Dresden (Germany). This body governed the sport until 1935, when it was incorporated in the Fédération Internationale de Bobsleigh et de Tobogganing (FIBT, International Bobsleigh and Tobogganing Federation). After it had been decided that luge would replace the sport of skeleton at the Olympic Games, the first World Championships in the sport were held in 1955 in Oslo (Norway). In 1957, the Fédération Internationale de Luge de Course (FIL, International Luge Federation) is founded. Luge events were first included in the Olympic Winter Games in 1964.
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