Ice cross downhill

Ice cross downhill
Red Bull Crashed Ice - Edmonton 2015
First played2001; 23 years ago (2001)
Characteristics
ContactIncidental
Type
Equipment
VenueDownhill ice cross track
Presence
OlympicNo
ParalympicNo
World GamesNo

Ice cross downhill is a winter extreme sporting event which involves direct competitive downhill skating on a walled track featuring sharp turns and high vertical drops. Ice cross downhill is similar to ski cross and boardercross, except with ice skates on an ice track, instead of using skis or snowboards on a snow track.[1]

Events were held under the name Red Bull Crashed Ice from 2001 until 2019, and have been sanctioned by the ATSX since 2019.[2]

Course configurations and equipment

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Courses

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Contestants race down the course's turns, berms, and jumps. After racing one after another in the time trials, typically there are four racers starting each race.[3]

Equipment

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Some racers use ice hockey skates.

Racers wear helmets, ice hockey equipment, bandy equipment, ringette equipment, or in some cases equipment from other sports. Ice hockey skates and bandy skates are used. Ice hockey skates have a design whose blade is cut to create two working edges giving downhill skaters control and the ability to make sharp turns and stops. Bandy skates have flatter, longer blades and typically do not have a tendon guard, however they do not have the same turning ability that ice hockey skates do.

In 2015, Sadie Lundquist discussed the ice cross downhill equipment racers were using during an interview:

Sadie uses her regular hockey equipment, and eschews the GoPro, but she says some of the guys will wear slightly sleeker lacrosse shoulder pads, briefs and shin pads, and some use longer, flatter bandy blades rather than curved [ice] hockey blades. "Bandy blades have twice the surface touching the ice," she explained. "More steel touching the ice is beneficial for stride. You get more push off and they should glide further."[4]

— Sarah Barker, "Hey Boys And Girls: You, Too, Can Skate 40 MPH Downhill Over Jumps", DeadSpin.com

Contestants

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Racers are typically ice hockey players, though ringette players, bandy players, speed skaters, and figure skaters have also competed.

America's seven-time single event winner Jasper Felder is particularly notable. Felder was a bandy player[5][6][7] who represented the USA for the United States national bandy team, and while in ice cross dowhill, represented Sweden. Finland's Salla Kyhälä has also competed, a ringette player from Finland's national ringette team[8][9] who also played in Canada's National Ringette League.


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See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Ice Cross - Downhill". Red Bull. Retrieved 2012-01-20.
  2. ^ "ATSX - Organization - We Are ATSX". ATSX. 2015.
  3. ^ Sarah Barker (25 January 2013). "In Ice Cross, Race to Top Is a Sprint to the Bottom". New York Times.
  4. ^ Sarah Barker (24 January 2015). "Hey Boys And Girls: You, Too, Can Skate 40 MPH Downhill Over Jumps". deadspin.com. DeadSpin. Retrieved 8 August 2022.
  5. ^ Jasper Felder
  6. ^ Image of Jasper Felder playing bandy for USA
  7. ^ "USA/Sweden International Bandy Camp - 2021 on Facebook". Facebook. Archived from the original on 2022-04-27.[user-generated source]
  8. ^ "Interview with Salla Kyhala, winner of Red Bull Crashed Ice 2015, St. Paul,MN, USA". youtube.com. Runglobalmedia. 26 January 2015. Retrieved 11 May 2022.
  9. ^ Brian Swane (14 March 2015). "Finland's Salla Kyhala dominates Canadian field at Edmonton Crashed Ice". edmontonsun.com. Edmonton Sun. Retrieved 11 May 2022.
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