Bobsleigh, which is also known as bobsled or bobsledge, is a winter sport that was invented in the late 19th century by British sportsmen seeking an extreme version of tobogganing. The world’s first bobsleigh club was founded in St Moritz, Switzerland in 1896, sparking a growth of the sport in winter resorts throughout Europe.

The first racing sleds were made of wood, but were soon replaced by steel sleds which became known as ‘bobsleds’, so called because of the manner in which crews bobbed back and forth in an attempt to increase their speed.

The Federation Internationale de Bobsleigh et de Tobogganing, which remains the sport’s governing body to this day, was founded in 1923 and a four/five-man competition took place at the inaugural winter Olympics in Chamonix, France in the following year.

The British Bobsleigh Association was formed in 1927 in New York as the United Kingdom’s governing body for the sport.

Technical regulations governing bobsleigh have been intermittently introduced during the course of the past century. In 1933, for example, it became illegal to heat the runners of the sled before a race. And, in 1947, competitors were banned from wearing shoes with spikes in the soles to give them a more advantageous grip at the start.

A modern track is approximately 1,200 to 1,300 metres long and has about 15 curving turns. A descent, during which the sled can reach speeds approaching 90mph, typically takes less than a minute. When braking at the end of the race, the crew feels five times the force of gravity.

Bobsleigh crews once consisted of five, or even six, people before being reduced to two and four-person teams in the 1930s. Men compete in both two and four-crew events. Women, for their part, participate in two-crew disciplines only. A crew consists of a driver, a brakeman and, in a four-strong team only, two pushers. The brake can be used only at the finish.

The driver, who steers the sled by means of handles and cords attached to a steering mechanism, must possess skill, timing and finesse to direct the sled down the best possible line in order to achieve the highest attainable speed. At turns, the driver, who is the only crew member with a clear view of the track, must keep the sled high enough to maintain optimum speed, but low enough to avoid travelling extra distance. Crew members shift weight to help the driver steer.

Bobsleigh exponents are selected for their speed and strength, qualities that are essential to help push the sled to a competitive initial speed at the start of the race. Runs begin from a standing start, with the crew pushing the sled for up to 50 metres before clambering aboard. The runners of the sled follow grooves in the ice for this distance and steering is therefore unnecessary until after the sled leaves the starting stretch.

Until a weight-limit regulation was introduced in 1952, bobsleigh crews veered on the heavy side, to say the least. (How would King Henry VIII have fared in a bobsled, one wonders?) Nowadays, the maximum weights, including the crew, are 630kg for the four-man event, 390kg for the two-man event and 340kg for the two-woman event. Metal weights can be added to attain these limits, as a heavier load potentially makes for a quicker run.

If all members of a crew pass the finish line inside an overturned sled, the descent is considered to be valid.

With the exception of 1960, when the Squaw Valley Organising Committee, refused to build a run, bobsleigh has always featured at the winter Olympics. A four-man bob event (which allowed four or five-man teams in 1924 and five-man only in 1928) was first held in 1924 before a two-man competition was added to the roster in 1932. A two-person event for women was introduced in 2002.

Each Olympic bobsleigh competition lasts for two days, with two runs contested on each day. The four runs are timed to .01 seconds and the final standings are determined by the aggregate time over the four runs.

Great Britain have won four Olympic bobsleigh medals (one gold, one silver and two bronze), the biggest haul by a ‘lowland’ country and more than any of Canada, Austria or France. Switzerland have won the most medals (30) and they are followed by Germany and USA, who have claimed 18 apiece. Only three other countries (East Germany, Italy and West Germany) have collected more medals than Britain.

Britain’s gold medal was won at the 1964 Innsbruck Games, when Tony Nash and Robin Dixon (later Baron Glentoran) were successful in the two-man bob event. The three other medals (silver in 1924 and bronze in both 1936 and 1998) have all come in the four-man discipline.

The victory by Nash and Dixon owed much to a replacement axle bolt loaned to them by Eugenio Monti, an Italian competitor who won a bronze medal in the event. Monti was subsequently awarded the Pierre de Coubertin medal for his outstanding display of sportsmanship.

Vonetta Flowers, of the United States, became the first black person to win a gold medal at the winter Olympics when, along with her drover Jill Bakken, she lifted the inaugural two-women’s bob title at Salt Lake City in 2002.

Cool Runnings, a 1993 comedy film featuring John Candy, is (very) loosely based on the Jamaican four-man bobsleigh team at the 1988 Calgary Olympics.

Prince Albert of Monaco became the first bobsledder to compete in five winter Olympics when he competed at Salt Lake City in 2002.