This seasons bobsled and skeleton world championships were awarded to Altenberg, Germany, and moved out of Lake Placid, New York, on Tuesday because of concerns about the coronavirus pandemic and potential travel complications.
The International Bobsled and Skeleton Federation said it made the move to protect the health of athletes and spectators across the globe. Lake Placid will be awarded the 2025 world championships instead.
The decision wasnt easy, as you can imagine, said Heike Groesswang, the IBSFs secretary general.
The IBSF plans to release the updated schedule for the entire bobsled and skeleton season, including World Cup races, later Tuesday.
I think in a perfect world we want to be competing against the worlds best in front of a home crowd, USA Bobsled and Skeleton CEO Aron McGuire told The Associated Press. And so, its disappointing to not be able to compete on home ice this year, but we certainly understand, and we want to make sure that the athletes are in the safest environment as they can.
Concerns with going forward with the event in Lake Placid as planned included the possibility that athletes from some nations would be unwilling or unable to come to the U.S. during the pandemic; an uncertainty about whether Mount Van Hoevenberg the site of Lake Placids sliding track would be able to have fans present; and the lack of clarity about whether a lengthy quarantine period would be required for those coming into the area for the championships.
Most of the athletes in the world championships would be coming from Europe.
Our strategy was to have less time spent in quarantine, Groesswang said.
Giving Lake Placid the 2025 world championships keeps the same timeline as would have been in place this year, that the Adirondack Mountain village plays host to worlds in the season immediately before an Olympics.
Both world championship events in sliding for this winter have now been moved from North America. Luges world championships, which were scheduled for this coming February in Whistler, Canada, were moved earlier this month to a yet-to-be-announced site also primarily because of concerns about quarantines for foreign athletes.
Altenberg played host to bobsled and skeleton worlds this past season as well; Germany won gold medals in mens skeleton, womens skeleton, two-man bobsled and four-man bobsled. The other gold went to the U.S., with Kaillie Humphries driving to the womens bobsled title.
I was super excited for a home world champs … but Id be super happy and all on board for taking it back to Altenberg as well, Humphries said.
___
More AP sports: https://apnews.com/apf-sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
LIVE TV
