When in spring I decided to meddle with this weird affair called “sportblog”, I thought beforehand that if I have at least a bit of backbone, besides all kinds of football and auto-moto, I’ll surely write about my favorite winter games. And there are two of them at the moment - biathlon and, strange as it may seem, bobsleigh. But, thinking for a while, one’ll understand that there is nothing strange at all... Roughly speaking, bobsleigh is also a technical kind of sport (something like Formula-1, but on sleds). And as Mother Nature has lately been completely confused, and at the beginning of November the temperature in Oslo is higher than in Madrid, it’s no wonder that no one in Scandinavia can recall how the snow looks like. That’s why biathlets failed to start the first stage of biathlon Cup Championship 2005/2006, as they didn’t know how the skis should be used. So it was His will to start with bobsleigh.

It seems to me, no single person disliked tobogganing when being a child. Of course if there were any sleds. But it didn’t occur to anyone to show this on TV before. And only when in 1980 it was decided to cultivate not only potato but also bobsleigh in our country, it all moved from the dead point. But it was possible to watch the competitions only once in four years. Nevertheless I clearly remember all the joy I got while watching these speeding bright things with no single idea about the way they could be driven. And I should say they zipped along beautifully.
Later it turned out that Switzerland is considered to be Motherland of bobsleigh and it became clear why Swiss and Germans are usually far ahead, though not always the ancestors of something stay on the top later on. And the third place at the Olympiad of 1984 in Sarajevo taken by Russian Zintis Ekmanis's 2-crew looked absolutely incredible. And when in four years in Calgary we won gold in 2-crew and the bronze in 4-crew, this event was celebrated as the national holiday. Janis Kipurs was the gold pilot of our 4-crew. It’s easy to notice that the pilots were Letts, and this fact is no wonder as the only track was created in Sigulda.

By the way it’s still there, but now in another state, and frankly speaking, not very friendly one. It’s evident that having no track left, Russian select team had hardly any chance, especially taking into consideration all the mess of that time. And the result was quite expectable. Gradually even I became more indifferent to bobsleigh. Though the beauty didn’t disappear, there stayed no one to support.

Thank God, there were reckless guys who went on going in for this kind of sport. Gradually, using beat sleds, training on God knows what, being drastically short of training practice on real tracks, they finally managed to get out of the trap, and, (fantastic!) reached the leader’s level. It took place even taking into account that, for example, in summer for mastering pushing (one of the primary track elements) they simply had to use the part of a railroad and push a trolley on it.

Finally, being deeply ashamed, with my tail between my legs I returned into the rows of bobsleigh fans. And wasn’t sorry for that.

During the last season Alexandr Zoubkov and Yevgeniy Popov constantly speeded along as the pilots both of 2-crew and 4-crew of Russian select team. They did even more. And if Popov nearly reached top ten, Zubkov was finally the third in 2-crew and won the World Cup in 4-crew. And it differs greatly from winning a pair of races. After that our guys gained not only respect but even became a bit afraid of.

Last season one even more important event took place. At first sight it looks as unreal as our results. Of course one may wonder why bobsleigh appeared in respectable Switzerland and not in our country, where after the first drink nearly everyone is ready to get down from anywhere on anything. But the very fact of our successful attempt to interest and even begin cooperating with Zinger brothers, leading specialists in the field of sled-projecting, caused not only my wonder, but true amazement. We can do if we want, especially taking into account that BMW aerodynamics is used for making German sleds, and Boeing Corporation works out American ones. Meanwhile we’ve been using second-hand equipment practically till nowadays. But at the present Olympian season only Germans and we’ve got new sleighs.

This year Calgary cup opened the season. And as it’s incredibly hard to get even into the ten of strongest in this technically complicated kind of sport, it was easy enough to name the potential leaders. First of all it was Martin Annen of Switzerland, last-year winner in 2-crew and combination; Pierre Lueders of Canada, who was the second in 2-crew and the third in 4-crew last year, and Andre Lange, the leader of German select team. And I’ve already mentioned Zoubkov.

Lueders couldn’t get higher than the fourth place in 2-crew both on his ‘own territory’ and at the USA second cup. According to general results he was only the fourth. At the moment Annen also hardly remains last-year champion as he makes many mistakes and as a result takes the third place in 4-crew and only the tenth in overall time of 2-crew.

But Andre Lange and American Todd Hays have made an incredible start. Lange has won everything in Canada. Heis, as if he were tied to Lange, was permanently the second. Zoubkov got third places, what is considered to be a failure in our team.

Just as the first, the second stage in Lake-Placid was considered to be one more training session before the Olympic Games, and was to clarify something (including Russian chances).

Unfortunately American track is good for holding bowling, but not luging competitions. Perhaps nothing bad can be said about the quality of concrete, but even our ordinary street cleaner would make the ice covering better. Lugers were the first to feel it having got serious injuries while opening the season. And then the turn of bobsleigh pilots came.

During 2-crew competitions, which are far easier than 4-crew, organizers didn’t have to patch the holes often. Lange was the best again, while Hays was the third, having lost the second place in a severe struggle against his countryman Mike Kohn. Zoubkov had to start with a new pusher because of Dmitriy Stepushkin’s injury. And elementary difference in the weight of two second numbers and, as a consequence, bolide’s disbalance, didn’t let Alexander to get used to the new conditions. The result is the sixth place.

Hardly had the 4-crew runs started, when it became clear that the gutter wouldn’t stand long and the glass shining will stay like that no longer than ten minutes. At the same time there is only one break between the first and the second runs. But when you aren’t sure whether you’ll scoop ice or concrete with runners at the next curve, no one will wait for regulations. By the way, Zoubkov’s team started the first race brilliantly and was much ahead of Lange.

The second run was broken several times in order to close the patches manually. This didn’t work. That’s why Italians, who had nearly reached the fifth place, had to wait for the start for too long and got ‘overwarmed’; this nearly prevented our Yevgeniy Popov from getting onto the podium for the first time. After the first attempt only 0, 01sec separated him from Lange, but at the second stage bazillion of time was swollen by that part of the route, which had desperately been ‘mended’ by organizers.

Hays’s 4-crew turned over at all. The pushers were gathered on the turns like skittles. It was hard to believe that two (instead of four) Americans reached the finish alive and safe. I wish you could only see Todd’s helmet, or, to be more correct, its remains.

And Zoubkov was gorgeous. All the overturns happened before he started. But nevertheless he looked just as he was remembered the previous year – the Winner. Without any doubt unconditional one. After two races he was more than 0, 7 sec ahead of Lange. This is really incredible according to bobsleigh standards. You got it!
At the moment everyone is going to Touring for pre-Olympic testing.
At this point I’m taking my leave.

Hasta la vista. Savar.