LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND (March 17, 2009) – Coming off a successful 2009 World Championship last month in Lake Placid, New York, the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (FIBT) has announced that the 2011 World Bobsleigh and Skeleton Championships have been awarded to the German Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation and to the Königssee track.

The FIBT’s 2008-2009 World Cup and World Championship season completed February 17-Mach 1 in Lake Placid, New York. It was the 10th World or Olympic bob/skeleton event for Lake Placid, the historic home of bobsleigh in North America with races dating back to the 1932 Olympic Winter Games.

“The Lake Placid Worlds had all the elements to be deemed a success by the federation: good crowds, strong television audiences, and a good dispersion of medals with six different nations making the podium over six different events,” said FIBT President Robert H. Storey.

Germany led the way in the Lake Placid World Championship medal count with two golds, two silvers and two bronze. Switzerland (2-1-0), Great Britain (1-2-0) and the USA (1-1-2) each claimed three medals. Bronze medals were also won by Latvia and Russia.

Overnight television ratings in Germany were solid with 15.37 million viewers tuning in to ARD sports programs the first weekend to watch women’s bob and 2-man bobsleigh. The average market share the first weekend (February 21-22) was 16%. German national network ZDF carried skeleton and four-man bobsleigh coverage the second weekend (February 27-March1). Over six million viewers saw four-man bobsleigh, with 2.05 million on board for the final heat on March1 that was live for 40 minutes.

The Bauhaus FIBT World Championship was broadcast worldwide, including same day coverage of the final heat of women’s bob, 2-man bob, men’s skeleton and 4-man bob on the Universal Sports channel in the USA. Other networks providing extensive coverage of the World Championship included ARD and ZDF (Germany), RTR Sport (Russia), CBC (Canada), British Eurosport II (United Kingdom), POLSAT (Poland), VIASAT Sport (Scandinavia and the Baltics), Canal+ Sport (France), RAI Sport (Italy), SRG (Switzerland), MBC (Korea) and Chello Central Europe.

The 20111 FIBT World Championships had been awarded to the Italian Federation and Cortina d’’Ampezzo at the FIBT Congress in June 2007. Due to local difficulties the city of Cortina and the Cortina Bob Club had to renounce the organisation of the event. The second bidder for the 2011 World Championships was the German Federation and they have put forward single candidate, Königssee, for the 2011 World Championships as a replacement for Cortina.

Königssee forms part of the Munich bid for the Olympic Winter Games of 2018 and significant investment has been allocated to improving and updating the Königssee facility as part of the bid.

Königssee last hosted the FIBT Championships in 2004. It marked the first time that all FIBT disciplines (2-man bob, 4-man bob, women’s bob, and men’s and women’s skeleton) were held at one venue.

For additional information:
Don Krone +1 (518) 514-2647
don.krone@fibt.com