The Olympia Bob Run
One of the oldest bobsleigh tracks in the world and one of only two naturally refrigerated runs that continue to stage international competitions, the Olympia Bob Run St Moritz has been in use every year since 1928.
The venue for the bobsleigh competitions at St Moritz 1928 and 1948, the track is a regular on the BMW IBSF World Cup circuit. It has hosted the IBSF World Championships 24 times, most recently in 2023. Among other major international competitions, it has staged the IBSF European Bobsleigh Championships 11 times (most recently in 2016), plus the 2017 IBSF Para Sport World Championships and the bobsleigh, luge and skeleton competitions at the Winter Youth Olympic Games Lausanne 2020.
The run also hosts Switzerland’s national bobsleigh, skeleton and toboggan championships and several local events. These include the Hornschlitten – a traditional toboggan race – and Bob Run Skating, which was first staged in 1991 and sees skaters in full ice hockey gear hurtle down the track at speeds of up to 80 km/h.
The track is open from the end of December to the beginning of March, and is used for training by amateur and high-performance athletes and by the Sankt Moritz Bobsleigh Club, founded in 1897. For a fee of CHF 250, visitors can ride the Bob Run with a professional pilot and brakeman. These guest trips can be booked daily during the winter season.
First constructed in 1904, it is one of the most environmentally friendly tracks in the world. More than 15,000 cubic metres of snow and 7,000 cubic metres of water are used to build it every winter, after the first snows in November, all without the use of chemical products. Though technology has made construction of the track easier than it used to be, it is still a painstaking task, with the exact same track area used year after year. Summertime visitors to St Moritz can take a walk down the course.