EV and I made a trip up to Utah Olympic Park and watched the bobsled and skeleton events. I've never seen this kind of sledding in person and found myself struck by the speed of the sleds. On TV it is far more difficult to judge the speed because they often pan with the sleds as they move through the curves of the ice-coated track.
We started at the bottom of the track, watching the sledders come into the finish station and then made our way up to the various curves. I noticed two things that I hadn't thought through previously: There are hundreds of "No flash photography" signs along the track. It hadn't occurred to me previously but it makes perfect sense that a strobe would probably blind a sledder. Secondly, the track is mostly covered with white awnings so that spectators cannot see the sledders. At first I was intrigued by this fact but when I leaned up to the guard rail and looked into one of the "tunnels," I quickly realized that the awnings create a softer, more diffused light that allows the sledders to see and judge the ice more effectively.
The sleds move so fast that I had no hope of capturing a non-blurring sled but I sort of like the effect of movement that the blur creates.
We also made our way up to the start station to see how that all worked. There we arrived just in time for the 2-man women's (?) bobsled event:
Note: Walking alongside a bobsled track to the start station is a great workout--high elevation, plenty of 15% grades. This makes up for missing out on a swim which we had planned but fell through earlier today.
Thanks to Nick at work, a skeleton athlete himself, for tipping me off about the event.
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