While the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games won’t be another 15 months the US Bobsled Team can look forward to making their cool runnings in luxury style as they’ll be using BMW-made sleds. While there was much of an uproar about where some Olympic equipment used by the U.S. team at the recent summer games was made, in this case the BMW DesignworksUSA group is responsible for creating the bobsled.
In fact the USA Bobsled & Skeleton Federation called in BMW since the Americans haven’t won a gold medal in the sport since 1936, when the team won in the two-man event. Ironically that was when the games were held in the German town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen , located in Bavaria – the home of BMW no less! Perhaps the USBSF sees the irony as well.
No actual bobsled has been demonstrated yet, but reportedly the prototype features “lightweight materials, optimized aerodynamic and chassis dynamics to leverage the energy output of the two-man team, increasing overall sport performance.”
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“We’re extremely proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish as a team in the last 10 years, and know that we have the athletic potential to bring home more Olympic gold medals next year,” said Darrin Steele, chief executive officer of USBSF. “By bringing BMW in to provide its expertise, we see an opportunity to close an equipment gap between Team USA and countries that have historically led Olympic two-man bobsled competition.”
More than one year in development, a prototype of the BMW two-man bobsled has already been delivered to USBSF. The technology will be refined in the next year in continuance of a highly iterative development process that involves on-site immersion with USBSF athletes, coaches and engineers by BMW Group DesignworksUSA, BMW Group’s international design studio headquartered in California, and on-ice testing by USBSF.
“What’s been unique to this process is the level of collaboration by our creative team with the performance staff at USA Bobsled & Skeleton,” said Laurenz Schaffer, President, BMW Group DesignworksUSA. “The level of immersion we’ve been able to achieve, which included athlete interviews for preferences and improvement areas, ergonomic evaluations and optimization studies in aerodynamics, has helped us to design what we believe will be a truly improved and innovative product.”
This announcement succeeds the completion of BMW’s first and second technology transfer projects as part of its partnership with the USOC: a velocity measurement system for long jumpers and a motion tracking system for swimmers. All are part of BMW’s larger commitment to advancing the training and performance goals of the athletes of Team USA as part of a sponsorship that extends through the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
“At BMW, we’re no strangers to sport performance characteristics such as agility, speed and aerodynamics,” said Ludwig Willisch, President and Chief Executive Officer, BMW of North America. “To be involved in a project with opportunity for such direct transfer of our core competencies to the advancement of Team USA was a very exciting proposition for us. We can’t wait to see this finished sled on the ice.”
To learn more about BMW’s partnership with the USOC and its four national governing body partners, USA Bobsled & Skeleton, US Speedskating, USA Swimming and USA Track & Field, visit www.bmwusanews.com.