This season’s bobsleigh and skeleton world championships were awarded to Altenberg, Germany, and they left Lake Placid, New York, on Tuesday due to considerations about the coronavirus pandemic and possible complications.
The Bobsleigh and Skeleton International Federation said it had taken the initiative “for the physical condition of athletes and spectators around the world. “Instead, Lake Placid will host the 2025 World Championships.
“The resolution is not easy, as you can imagine,” said Heike Groesswang, general secretary of the IBSF.
The IBSF plans to publish the updated calendar for the entire bobsleigh and skeleton season, adding World Cup races, later on Tuesday.
“I think in a very productive world, we have to compete with the world’s most productive in front of a local crowd,” Aron McGuire, CEO of USA Bobsled and Skeleton, told The Associated Press. “So it’s disappointing not to, to be able to compete on ice at home this year, however, we understand it and we need to make sure athletes are in the safest environment imaginable. “
Concerns about the continuation of the occasion at Lake Placid as planned included the option that athletes in some countries may or may not be able to come to the United States because of the pandemic; uncertainty as to whether Mount Van Hoevenberg – the site of the Lake Placid ski slope – may keep enthusiasts in mind; and the lack of clarity as to whether a long era of quarantine would be mandatory for those who arrive in the area for the championships.
Most athletes at the world championships would come from Europe.
“Our strategy to spend less time in quarantine,” Groesswang said.
Giving Lake Placid the 2025 World Championship helps maintain the same schedule he would have been in position this year, with the village of Adirondack Mountain hosting the world championships in the season just before the Olympics.
Altenberg also hosted the bobsleigh and skeleton worlds last season; Germany won gold medals in male skeleton, female skeleton, two-man bobsleigh and four-man bobsleigh. The gold medal returned to the United States, with Kaillie Humphries leading the title of women’s bobsleigh.
“I’m super excited about a world house championship . . . but he would be super satisfied and everyone on board to bring him back to Altenberg too,” Humphries said.
The two world gliding championships for this winter have now moved from North America. The luge world championships, which were scheduled for next February in Whistler, Canada, will now be held in Konigssee, Germany, basically due to quarantine considerations for foreign athletes. Konigssee was announced as the new site on Tuesday when a modified schedule for the Tobogganing World Cup was revealed, a list that includes an imaginable World Cup in Lake Placid in January.
The sled has particularly condensed its program, now planning two races in Igls, Austria, adding the opening of the annual season; two in Konigssee, adding worlds; and maybe two in Oberhof, Germany. It is very important for the tracks to host two races in the same season.