FIBT 2009 World Championship

[Guest ryan04]

just a little close-to-home pride the 2009 FIBT ( Bobsled and Skeleton ) will be held in Lake Placid, NY

Governor George E. Pataki announced during the summer that a partnership between the New York Olympic

Regional Development Authority (ORDA) and the United States Bobsled and Skeleton Federation (USBSF), both based in Lake Placid, produced a successful bid which will bring the 2009 World Bobsled and Skeleton Championships to the two-time Olympic village. The announcement was made on June 24

by Bob Storey, President of the International Federation for Bobsled and Toboggan (FIBT), at the annual FIBT Congress in Berchtesgaden, Germany. The FIBT governs bobsled and skeleton internationally, including the Winter Games. In the voting by the participating nations, Lake Placid defeated Innsbruck, Austria, another double Winter Olympic host, by a

vote of 25-11. Lake Placid last hosted the World Championships in 2003. It will be the eighth such World Championship event in the community’s storied history and adds tothe growing legacy of the combined bobsled, Luge and skeleton track at the Verizon Sports Complex that was rebuilt in 1999 and opened in January 2000. New York contributed $18 million of the $25 million price tag (federal representatives procured the remainder). “We are very happy to see that the state’s investment in Lake Placid’s sports venues continues to pay dividends,” said Governor Pataki. “We have always felt that if we built and maintained the best sites, the world would respond by comingto this beautiful region of the North Country.In the past five years, upgrades at the Verizon Sports Complex have produced the 2000 Winter Goodwill Games, the 2003 World Bobsled Championships and World Cup competitions in bobsled, luge and skeleton on an annual basis. With this administration supporting ORDA’s expertise in the field of event hosting, we will make sure that this trend continues.” The entire slate of races - men’s two and four man bobsled events, women’s 2-person bobsled and men’s and women’s skeleton – is scheduled for a two-week period in February 2009 and will be the final major championship in these sports prior to the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

[Guardian]

Nothing new here. Calgary hosted this kind of combined world championships just early this year. Of course, now that this is the Olympic year, the one in Torino is the combination of being the world AND Olympic champion for these athletes.