Featuring at all but one Olympic Winter Games, bobsleigh is a firm fixture on the schedule.
A sport that combines speed, power and fine margins for success, Team GB have won five Olympic medals in the discipline between 1924 and 2014.
Here is what you need to know about bobsleigh:
When was bobsleigh invented?
Bobsleigh first came started in the late 1800s as thrill-seeking British tourists wanted an activity that was more adrenaline-inducing than traditional sledding.
Caspar Badrutt, a St Moritz hotel owner, is credited with inspiring the sport, having turned his hotel into the destination for holidaying Brits in the winter.
Those tourists started to adapt the sleds used for deliveries to race down the streets of the resort town.
Eventually, two skeleton sleds were attached together and a steering mechanism was added, which saw the popularity increase further.
Residents were less enthused and that sparked Badrutt to build an ice track nearby in Cresta, which has been in use ever since.
The Cresta Run was also the scene of the beginning of formal competitions, which led to the sport’s inclusion in the Olympic Games in 1924.
Where does the name bobsleigh come from?
Bobsleigh takes its name from the fact that the crews would bob back and forth to increase the speed of the sleigh when at the start of their runs.
How do you win in bobsleigh?
Standings in bobsleigh are decided by the fastest combined times over a set number of runs or heats.
In most races, including World Cups, each team completes two runs, however, in the Olympic Games and the World Championships, four runs are completed.
What are bobsleighs made out of?
Bobsleighs are optimised to be as fast as possible, which means they use fibreglass, carbon fibre, or a mixture of both for the body.
Steel runners and light metals are used for the pushing, steering and braking mechanisms.
How many people compete in bobsleigh?
There are four Olympic disciplines: four-man, two-man, two-women and women’s monobob.
When bobsleigh first originated in competitive form, the sleds were often made for five- and six-man teams.
What do the different bobsleigh athletes do?
In four-person crews, there is one pilot, one brakeman and two pushers.
The pilot operates the steering mechanism as the bobsleigh goes down the course, which will have several turns as part of it.
The brakeman operates the brakes, which are mainly used to stop the sleigh once it has crossed the finish line.
The pushers’ job is in the first five or six seconds as they push the sled to give it the fastest possible start before all four athletes jump into the sleigh at a certain point of the track.
In two-person bobsleigh, there is a pilot and brakeman, while in monobob, the athlete does all three elements themselves.
How do you steer a bobsleigh?
Bobsleighs are steered similarly to how normal sleds are steered – with ropes.
The ropes are attached to the runners, and pulling on either the left or the right rope will influence in which direction the sleigh goes.
How fast can a bobsleigh go?
The fastest speed a bobsleigh has gone is 97.59mph, which was recorded by a four-man crew in 2019.
The fastest time for a four-man competition at the Olympic Games was set by a German sled in PyeongChang 2018 as they posted a combined time of 3:15.85 for four runs.
Sportsbeat 2025