How 500-Pound Bobsleds Got Halfway Around The World For The Olympics:
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With equipment that is so clunky yet so delicate, it’s never easy getting a bobsled from Point A to Point B, and this year, the process was even harder. As Team USA’s sleds hurtle down a roughly mile-long ice track over the next two weeks in the mountains outside Beijing, whipping around 16 banked curves in a minute or less, it will be just the final stretch of a global journey that required similarly precise coordination.
The process was made more complicated by the current international shipping crisis. Few shippers were available, and prices were “astronomical” and “insane,” says Tracey, who oversees logistics for Team USA’s bobsled and skeleton athletes. To save money, the team is considering shipping the sleds back to the U.S. on a two- or three-month voyage by boat.
It was another couple of days before they made it to the venue in Yanqing, northwest of Beijing, but that timetable still qualifies as a success. The federation dealt with travel cancellations this season, including one that, combined with a weather-related delay, made bobsled pilot Frank Del Duca almost a week late to an event in Park City, Utah. Had the international federation not stepped in and moved some races around, that setback might have kept him from qualifying for these Olympics.
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