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luge

Luge is an activity entertainment performed by children and adults in winter and is also the prerogative of experienced sportsmen. Discover the history of this hobby just fun, practice especially during winter holidays .

Evolution sledding as a recreational activity

Luge is a kind of sled sliding on ice or snow thanks to the weight of the editor and the difference of the slope borrowed. With no way of pulling the sled is a leisure activity for children and adults in winter, and also forms a sporting activity full. The ancestor of the sled back to 800 BC. AD, and was used by the Vikings in the region Slagen as a means of transportation on land or covered with snow ice. Caspar Badrutt

contributed greatly to the growth of the sled as a leisure activity. The Swiss hotel entrepreneur and was the owner of a luxury hotel mineral in the city of St. Moritz, Switzerland. Tired of having to close his establishment during the winter, he bet with his English regular customers so that they are activities to do during the winter period. They then tried to slide on snow with sleds and invented the first sliding methods: foot forward and lying on his back.

by Marc Lagneau

Luge as a sport

To avoid collisions with pedestrians in St Moritz, Badrutt Caspar built the first natural track luge dedicated in 1879. This track became the model for the development of the track in 1884 Cresta Run, dedicated to the luge. The first international luge took place in 1883 in Davos, Switzerland, on a frozen road 4 km. 21 contestants representing several nationalities were involved: Germany, Britain, Australia, the United States, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland.

Luge is a sport of ice that is the subject of several competitions. The first world championships were held in 1955 and luge appeared in the Olympic program in 1964. The discipline has been linked to the Federation of Bobsleigh and tobogganning from 1935. Its popularity and growth contributed to the creation in 1957 of its own international federation. Note that the sled is the most dangerous of winter sports. Lugers spin on the track at speeds of 120 to 140 km / hour, lying on his back foot forward, without brakes or steering.