St Moritz 1928: Overview
Five competition and ceremony venues were used for the Olympic Winter Games St Moritz 1928. One venue already existed, two were built for the Games and two were temporary (seasonal) venues rebuilt every year.
All five venues hosted events at the resort’s second Olympic Winter Games 20 years later. Three of them continue to offer quality facilities for high-performance athletes, the general public and visitors to the resort.
The Ski Jumping Hill, known locally as the Olympiaschanze, closed in 2006 because of safety concerns. Ski Club Alpina used the venue prior to its closure, and though plans were in place for the construction of a new hill, they were not implemented due to cost issues. A 90m hill was built next to the existing 70m hill for the 1948 Games, when it hosted the normal hill ski jumping competition and the ski jumping leg of the Nordic combined event.
The Skistadion hosted cross-country skiing, Nordic combined and two demonstration events at the 1948 Games: the military patrol competition (military patrol is a team sport in which athletes compete in ski mountaineering, rifle shooting and cross-country skiing), and the cross-country skiing round of the winter pentathlon competition. Though its stands and shooting ranges were dismantled a few years ago, the Skistadion’s trails now form part of a 230-kilometre cross-country skiing network catering for both the classic and skating styles.
Built in 1927 especially for the second Olympic Winter Games, the Olympic Stadium is now a private house. It lay empty and fell into disrepair in the second half of the 20th century, before being refurbished by the current owner, a celebrated Swiss designer. Many of its original features have been restored to their former glory, while the ice rink in front of the building is now used as a driving range by a local golf club and also hosts occasional charity cricket matches. The stadium was the venue for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies and speed skating, figure skating and ice hockey in 1928.
The venues for the cresta and bobsleigh events at St Moritz 1928, the Cresta Run and the Olympia Bob Run St Moritz respectively, are both naturally refrigerated tracks. First constructed in 1904, the Olympia Bob Run is one of the oldest bobsleigh tracks in the world, and one of the most environmentally friendly. More than 15,000 cubic metres of snow and 7,000 cubic metres of water are used to rebuild it every winter, without the aid of any chemical products. The run regularly hosts major bobsleigh, luge and skeleton competitions, and hosted events in all three disciplines at the Winter Youth Olympic Games Lausanne 2020.
Owned and maintained by the St Moritz Tobogganing Club, the world-famous Cresta Run has been built from scratch with snow every year since the winter of 1884/85. It continues to be used extensively today, and hosted 30 competitions in 2019.