Luge FIL World Cup 2019 - 2020

[dcro 10,210]

Also, a LOT of emerging nations base themselves at Igls. You can see it every season, as Igls always has by far the longest entry lists.

[Olympian1010 7,977]

1 minute ago, dcro said:

Also, a LOT of emerging nations base themselves at Igls. You can see it every season, as Igls always has by far the longest entry lists.

Becuase it’s one of the easiest tracks, and it’s in a central location.

[Monzanator 4,503]

15 minutes ago, Olympian1010 said:

Life and bobsled were well established Olympics sports before then. Igls is responsible for the modern era though, and it is one of the most iconic tracks in the world. It’s just not hardest, and the start is pretty much all that matters.

 

Huh? Someone had to build a track outside St. Moritz to set the ball in motion. Without Igls I doubt we have luge & bobsleigh as Olympic sport right now. There are far more natural luge tracks out there so even if luge got an Olympic spot, it would have been on natural tracks.

[Olympian1010 7,977]

9 minutes ago, Monzanator said:

 

Huh? Someone had to build a track outside St. Moritz to set the ball in motion. Without Igls I doubt we have luge & bobsleigh as Olympic sport right now. There are far more natural luge tracks out there so even if luge got an Olympic spot, it would have been on natural tracks.

Well there were many tracks like St. Mortiz in existence back then. Bobsled has been in almost every Winter Olympics (Squaw Valley didn’t include it because building a track wasn’t worth the investment to them). We’d definitely still have bobsled and luge without Igls. Someone else would’ve eventually built a permanent track anyways. 

[Monzanator 4,503]

1 hour ago, Olympian1010 said:

Well there were many tracks like St. Mortiz in existence back then. Bobsled has been in almost every Winter Olympics (Squaw Valley didn’t include it because building a track wasn’t worth the investment to them). We’d definitely still have bobsled and luge without Igls. Someone else would’ve eventually built a permanent track anyways. 

 

Well, the old boarding tracks had no future beyond a certain date. The rise of luge kinda helped bobsleigh into modern transition. The cost of building a new artificial track is still too big for just about everyone.

[phelps 7,678]

12 hours ago, dcro said:

Also, a LOT of emerging nations base themselves at Igls. You can see it every season, as Igls always has by far the longest entry lists.

 

12 hours ago, Olympian1010 said:

Becuase it’s one of the easiest tracks, and it’s in a central location.

 

it's mainly because FIL has an agreement with the Igls officials to act as "international luge school" and home of their own "development program" for small/non-luge Countries (like the Aigle velodrome in Switzerland in track cycling)...

 

of course, Igls has been chosen because a) they agreed on that and b) because it's an "easy" track...surely they couldn't use tracks like Lake Placid, Park City or Sigulda to play that role (unless you want to read about severe injuries almost once every day)...

 

p.s. a short track to start a few more very young guys to the art of artificial luge is a great investment, not a waste of funds (especially if Natural Track Luge becomes an Olympic sport and the Austrian Artificial Luge team loses an enormous source of recruiting, as NTL is nowadays)...

 

10 hours ago, Monzanator said:

 

Well, the old boarding tracks had no future beyond a certain date. The rise of luge kinda helped bobsleigh into modern transition. The cost of building a new artificial track is still too big for just about everyone.

 

it's more the cost of mantaining that track...which is the main reason the Cesana track was dismantled and the reason why Cortina didn't make any refurbishing for years until they were forced to close everything down...nobody wanted to pay for those (very high) maintainance and "updating" costs, once the building was put in place...

 

hopefully, now they've reached an agreement on this question that should keep the new Cortina track working for at least 25 years after the end of the 2026 Olympics (p.s. knowing what Italian politicians say and do, I don't trust them until we get to 2051 and see the track still used for major competitions in that year )...

[phelps 7,678]

12 hours ago, Monzanator said:

 

Huh? Someone had to build a track outside St. Moritz to set the ball in motion. Without Igls I doubt we have luge & bobsleigh as Olympic sport right now. There are far more natural luge tracks out there so even if luge got an Olympic spot, it would have been on natural tracks.

 

because of its particular nature (it's still a naturally refrigerated track, the last one on the main Bobsleigh/Skeleton/Luge circuit), St.Moritz is only active 2 months/year...

they couldn't use that track for the aim of an international luge school/developing program in any case, even if they really wanted to...

[heywoodu 15,145]

This is the transgender doubles or what?  

 

[heywoodu 15,145]

16 hours ago, Monzanator said:

 

Not on the women's side which used to be more dominated by Germans. I still remember Neuner & Tagwerker. They were more of a threat than anyone Austria has right now. Hannah Prock is a total waste of time. Demchenko's daughter makes her look like a complete fraud. I can't decide which offspring is worse, Hannah Prock in luge or Nina Ortlieb in alpine skiing.

'Total waste of time', 'complete fraud', haha Always good for some entertaining overacting  

[heywoodu 15,145]

15 hours ago, Olympian1010 said:

Becuase it’s one of the easiest tracks, and it’s in a central location.

Mostly that second reason though, probably. I doubt there's a sliding track that's easier to reach than Innsbruck-Igls, wouldn't even need a car to get there (when going there as a fan who's not bringing sleds and stuff  ).