Racing with Death: The Not-So-Ordinary Happening? of the 1932 Lake Placid Olympic Bobsled Events P e te r M . HopsiCKERt Department o f Kinesiology The Pennsylvania State University, Altoona D uring the practice sessions fo r the 1932 Olympic bobsled events, Lake Placid) M t. Van Hoevenberg slide endured multiple crashes involving over a dozen athletes. An analysis o f the slide from inception to construction to competition as well as the resulting management o f the accidents produces significant historical insight into the administration o f the winter Olympic games. Using David Welky's paradigm suggesting that the analyses o f ordinary Olympic happenings can be used to probe larger issues, this analysis uses the “seemingly m undane” happening o f facility construction and competition to provide historical insight into an attempt to use the Olympics as a promotional springboard to a host city’s fu tu re commercial success. As the firs t sliding fa cility built in N orth America dedicated tc both an Olympic games and for future commercial programming, this analysis also provides significant historical insight into modem Olympic issues including the fiduciary conundrum o f building Olympic facilities with Correspondence to
[email protected]. potentially limited post-Olympic commercial possibilities, the sometimes con tentious nature o f a host city’s environmental stewardship and the fin a l location of those facilities as it pertains to the facilities’ fu tu re commercial success, an d the nationalistic-laden gamesmanship that oft en plays out on these facilities during the administration o f practice sessions an d Olympic competition that can result in decision-making that potentially jeopardizes the safety o f the athlete.