Red Bull Crashed Ice - HISTORY

How it all began with a fishy smell
January 20, 2001 was the day a new sport was born, a sport of the century as a renown English newspaper described the breathtaking new competition. Athletes from around the world flocked to the Swedish capital Stockholm for the inaugural race wearing hockey skates in a man vs. man battle down a 300-metre long ice track filled with gap jumps, ice steps and razor-sharp hairpin turns. The sport was called Ice Cross Downhill and the race called Red Bull Crashed Ice.
Never before had anyone attempted anything even remotely similar and all those who took part in that first race all outstanding hockey players called it an incredible experience.
The first race in Stockholm was a pilot project both from a sporting and technical perspective. Because the construction work involved was so extensive there was no chance to test the event out in an advance and see what the athletes would be up against. The first Red Bull Crashed Ice track was set up through Stockholms fish market a location with the aroma of fresh fish. After a brief boycott at the start and spectacular crashes in the test runs, the competitors quickly adapted to their unusual field of play. Since then there have been 14 races in eight countries. Hundreds of thousands of spectators have watched the races on the ever-more advanced tracks on ski slopes in the mountains and through urban valleys in city centres.
Its an enormous sporting challenge, its extremely spectacular for the crowds, and a spine-tingling race for the worlds best athletes, says Swedens Jasper Felder, who has won 7 of the 14 races so far. The remarkable Swede as well as Finlands Miikka Jouhkimainen and Arttu Pihlainen have been the dominant forces in the eight-year history of the race.
While in the past the races were staged as individual events, there will now be a formal world championship for the first time in 2010.

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