Altenberg bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton track

The Altenberg bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton track is a venue in Germany for bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton. Located in Saxony in eastern Germany, it is northwest of Altenberg, near the border with the Czech Republic.

Altenberg
Location in Germany
Altenberg track map
Woman's single luge start house (left). Track (right) leads uphill through turns #2 and #1 to men's single luge and bobsleigh-skeleton start houses.

History

Altenberg raced bobsleigh as early as 1908 on a natural track going downhill. By the late 1970s, the East Germans were already successful in luge, and had increasing success in bobsleigh. This included a total of six Winter Olympic medals in bobsleigh in 1976 and 1980, along with five world bobsleigh championship medals between 1977 and 1979.[1][2][3][4] In order to increase East Germany's effort to win more bobsleigh and luge medals both at the Winter Olympics and their respective sport's world championships, a track was constructed.[5] The track at Altenberg was constructed under the order of then-Stasi (Ministry for State Security in East Germany) Minister Erich Mielke.

Construction began in 1981 under restrictive access with a wire fence and armed patrols from the Landstreitkräfte (East German National People's Army) on orders from Mielke.[6] By 1983, construction was completed though trials were less than successful. This would result in turns 11 and 12 being destroyed and rebuilt. It was not until late 1986 when the track was officially completed with homologation received from both the International Bobsleigh and Tobogganing Federation (FIBT) and the International Luge Federation (FIL) the following year.[6] The track was part of the training used by SG Dynamo Zinnwald/ SV Dynamo until the 1990 German reunification.[7][8] Men's skeleton first competed in 1992.[9]

In 1997, the women's single luge start house was created before turn three after being shared with the men's double luge start house before turn seven from 1989 to 1996.[10] Women's skeleton first began competition in 1999 while women's bobsleigh first started the following year.[11][12][13] An 18th curve was modified during the summer of 2007 with the addition of a finish curve and straightaway.[14]

Over the weekend of 1–3 February 2008, the track hosted the 200th FIL Luge World Cup event, which began in December 1977.[15] The track was awarded the 2012 FIL World Luge Championships at the 2008 FIL Congress in Calgary, Canada, on 28 June of that year, following Whister's bid withdrawal.[16][17] Refurbishment of the track for the 2012 World Luge Championships was projected to cost €1.4 million, which included modernizing the electronics and refrigeration system and renovation of the women's and junior start houses.[5][18]

Track technical details

The track is powered by four refrigeration condensers each with a 200 kW (268 hp) capacity which combined can keep the track frozen at ambient conditions up to 20 °C (68 °F).[19] Its storage tanks hold up to 45 metric tons (50 short tons) of ammonia, generating the equivalent of 12,000 household refrigerators.[19] There a total of fifty sensors located throughout the track with its staff contacted at a moment's notice if anything bad occurs.[19] Monitoring is done by closed-circuit television to further enhance track security [19] The icing of the track starts in October, taking eight workers one week to evenly ice the track to a layer of 2–6 cm (0.8–2.4 in) at a temperature of −13 °C (9 °F).[19]

Statistics
Physical statistics
Sport[14] Length Turns
Bobsleigh and skeleton 1,413 m (0.88 mi) 17
Luge - men's singles 1,387 m (0.86 mi) 17
Luge - women's singles 1,220 m (0.76 mi) 15
Luge - men's doubles, team relay and junior 996 m (0.62 mi) 11

The vertical drop is 122.22 metres (401 ft) from the bobsleigh start, with a maximum grade of 15% and an average grade of 8.66%. The elevation at the base is 660 m (2,165 ft) above sea level.[20]

Image Turn number Name Reason named
3, 4, 5 Omega After the Omega shape.
Image not found 6, 7, 8, 9 Labyrinth Four turns in quick succession without a straight (labyrinth)
10. Kreisel 320-degree Kreisel (circular) curve.
. 15, 16, 17 Zielkreisel "Finish curve" in (in German). Also a Kreisel curve.

Turns 1, 2, 11–14, and 18 have no names listed in the track diagram.[14] Turn 18 is followed by a Bremshang, a finish/braking straight.

Track records (all records from [21] unless noted)
Sport Record Nation - athlete(s) Date Time (seconds)
Bobsleigh two-man Start  Germany - André Lange & Kevin Kuske 20 December 2003 5.12
Bobsleigh two-man Track  Russia - Alexandre Zoubkov & Alexey Voevoda 7 January 2017 54.48  
Bobsleigh four-man Start  Germany - Christoph Langen, Sven Rühr, Markus Zimmermann, & Olav Hampel 12 January 1996 5.04
Bobsleigh four-man Track  Germany - André Lange, René Hoppe, Kevin Kuske, & Martin Putze 24 February 2008 53.17  
Bobsleigh two-woman Start[22]  Canada - Kaillie Humphries & Heather Moyse 19 December 2009 5.74
Bobsleigh two-woman Track[22]  Canada - Helen Upperton & Jennifer Ciochetti 19 December 2009 56.79  
Skeleton - men's Start Aleksandr Tretyakov -  Russia 10 February 2007 4.90
Skeleton - men's Track Christopher Grotheer -  Germany 7 January 2017 56.20  
Skeleton - women's Start Kerstin Jürgens -  Germany 8 January 2005 5.51
Skeleton - women's Track Anja Huber -  Germany 5 January 2008 58.86  
Luge - men's singles Start[23] Johannes Ludwig -  Germany 5 December 2009   7.555
Luge - men's singles Track[23] Albert Demtschenko -  Russia 26 November 2005 54.222
Luge - women's singles Start[24] Natalie Geisenberger -  Germany 6 December 2009   6.054
Luge - women's singles Track[24] Sylke Otto -  Germany 27 November 2005 53.091
Luge - men's doubles Start[25]  Germany - Tobias Wendl & Tobias Arlt 22 January 2009   6.202
Luge - men's doubles Track[25]  Germany - Tobias Wendl & Tobias Arlt 2 February 2008 42.109

Championships hosted
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References
  1. Bobsleigh two-man Olympic medalists: 1932-56 and since 1964
  2. Bobsleigh four-man Olympic medalists: 1924, 1932-56, and since 1964
  3. Bobsleigh two-man world championship medalists since 1931 Archived 29 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  4. Bobsleigh four-man world championships medalists since 1930 Archived 11 December 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  5. RSBV.de link on luge at Altenberg. - accessed 2 December 2009.
  6. RSBV.de link on bobsleigh at Altenberg. (in German) - accessed 2 December 2009.
  7. Link to proof the Dynamo track Archived 17 March 2008 at the Wayback Machine(in German)
  8. SV Dynamo bobsleigh link Archived 5 November 2007 at the Wayback Machine(in German)
  9. Historical track records of men's skeleton since 1992 at Altenberg. (in German) - accessed 2 December 2009.
  10. Historical track records of luge women's singles track records since 1986 at Altenberg (in German) - accessed 2 December 2009.
  11. Historical track records of women's skeleton since 1999 at Altenberg (in German) - accessed 2 December 2009.
  12. Two-woman bobsleigh track records since 2000 at Altenberg (in German) - accessed 2 December 2009.
  13. RSBV.de skeleton history at the Altenberg track.(in German) - accessed 2 December 2009.
  14. Track profile (in German) - accessed 2 December 2009.
  15. No drudgery after luge festival in Thuringia. at the Fédération Internationale de Luge de Course (30 January 2008 article accessed 2 December 2009.)
  16. 56th FIL Congress in Calgary at the Fédération Internationale de Luge de Course (29 April 2008 article accessed 2 December 2009).
  17. 56th FIL Congress in Calgary at the Fédération Internationale de Luge de Course (28 June 2008 article accessed 2 December 2009.)
  18. 1.4 million Euros for Altenberg at the Fédération Internationale de Luge de Course (11 May 2009 article accessed 2 December 2009)
  19. Technical details of Altenberg. - accessed 2 December 2009.
  20. "Altenberg". IBSF. (tracks). Retrieved 17 January 2020.
  21. List of track records at Altenberg current as of 2 December 2009 (in German)
  22. Humphires and Moyse Set Records, Win in Altenberg. at the Fédération Internationale de Bobsleigh et de Tobogganing (19 December 2009 article accessed 19 December 2009.)
  23. FIL Luge World Cup Altenberg 5 December 2009 men's singles results. - accessed 5 December 2009.
  24. FIL Luge World Cup Altenberg 6 December 2009 women's singles results. - accessed 6 December 2009.
  25. FIL Luge World Cup Altenberg 5 December 2009 doubles results. - accessed 5 December 2009.
  26. FIBT men's skeleton world championships men's skeleton results since 1989 Archived 29 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  27. FIL European Luge Championships men's singles results since 1914 Archived 15 November 2006 at the Wayback Machine
  28. FIL World Luge Championships men's single results since 1955 Archived 18 December 2007 at the Wayback Machine

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