Bobsleigh at the 1972 Winter Olympics

The bobsled competition at the 1972 Winter Olympics was held from 4 to 12 February in Sapporo . At the time of the election of this city as the center of the next Olympiad, the Japanese did not have any bobsled experience, therefore, the construction of the new route was assigned to foreign specialists. Construction began in October 1969 on the northern slope of Mount Teine, located a few kilometers north-west of Sapporo. The object was commissioned in January 1970, but before the start of the Games, designers continued to make minor changes to the design.

The length of the route was 1568 m with a height of 132 m and an average gradient of 8.4%. The starting point was at an altitude of 495 m above sea level, the trajectory had 14 turns. Unlike the previous Olympiad, held in Grenoble, the weather favored the competition - throughout all the races the ambient air temperature remained in the region from –6 to –8 degrees Celsius.

Two sets of awards have been played. The competition was attended by 79 people from 11 countries, of which only the hosts appeared for the first time, and the Japanese national team became the first Asian team in the Olympic bobsled competition. In the standings of double crews, the German pilot Wolfgang Zimmerer broke away from his pursuers after the first two attempts, and on the first day of the competition it was clear that he would receive a gold medal. The Japanese showed a good result for the debutants, coming fifteenth - the ambitious teams of the USA, Canada and Great Britain were left behind. In the competitions of fours, the Swiss pilot Jean Vicky flashed, having completed four almost perfect attempts, he obtained the first gold for Switzerland in the last sixteen years. The winner of the standings was determined immediately, but for the remaining places on the podium a very fierce struggle developed between the teams of Italy and Germany. As a result, the Italians still managed to take the silver, although the Germans were only 0.09 seconds behind.

After the end of the competition, bobsled was threatened with expulsion from the Olympic program, in particular, the then president of the International Olympic Committee, Avery Brendage , criticized this sport: “Bobsleigh will not be an Olympic discipline from now on. All over the world, only two or three hundred athletes compete in this sport. The track in Sapporo cost the city $ 1.5 million, and now they are going to demolish it. ” Contrary to this statement, the bobsled remained in the Olympic program, and the track was actually dismantled only in 1991. However, although this sport was not removed from the Olympic Games, residents of Denver , selected for the next competition, refused to finance the construction of such a facility after the referendum.