Luge Vs Bobsledding – What’s The Difference
The winter sports of luge and bobsledding have a lot in common. Both are featured prominently in winter Olympics. Both are extremely perilous for the partakers. Both consist of plunging feet first down the same greasy track at top speeds. Both sports require nerves of steel and lightning fast reflexes.
However, there are lots of sophisticated difference between these two sports that test the boundaries of how humans relate to gravity. Bobsledders work in groups of almost 4 people, while luge racers either go solo or work in teams of two. Lugers face the elements head on, whereas bobsledders enjoy some protection from their equipment.
A bobsled is shaped kind of like a canoe with an extended opening, and although the riders are most exposed to the elements, the low front and sides of a bobsled offer the athletes some level of defense from both the force of the wind when they race and from the possibility of major injury if they crash. The bobsleigh itself is designed to absorb at least some of the impact of a collision, offering the racers a modicum of protection.
By contrast, a luge is a tiny piece of equipment approximately the scale of a couple of skateboards. Racers cling to this tiny surface to protect themselves from the friction of the track, but in the event of a crash a luge racer’s body is entirely exposed and vulnerable. Bobsleds accommodate either two or 4 riders, and a lot of the athletes coaching before a bob-sled race centers on learning to work together as a team.
With top race speeds over 100 kilometers an hour, it is necessary a bobsledding team function as though they were many limbs attached to the same brain. Being even a few fractions of a second out of sync in their movements can send a bobsled team rolling into a major crash instead of flying past the finish line. It can be very tough for teams to accomplish the kind of precise group coordination that they need in order to excel on the track.
Luging is a sport undertaken by individuals and by teams of two. With no need to fret about coordinating 4 people to move as one, luge racers are free to focus their training on other facets of downhill sled racing. Lugers work to improve everything from their position on the sled to their ability to predict the nerve-shattering hairpin turns of the track. Luge racers need to be in top physical condition in order to be ready to respond instantaneously to surprising twists and turns.
As well as learning how to handle the track, athletes who pursue excellence in the world of luging need to become mavens at safeguarding themselves in the event of a crash. Because luges go at such fast speeds, the difference between reacting right away to a bump in the road and reacting a few fractions of a second later can be the difference between walking away from a spill and being carried away on a stretcher.
