From Lausanne, SUI
(Nov. 28, 2020) – The IBSF has joined the FIL in their cancelation of the season finale in Yanqing due to the ongoing COVID pandemic.
The IBSF was scheduled to have their International Training Period and World Cup finale all in the beginning of March. However, due to the various challenges (travel and other) brought on by the pandemic, the IBSF has decided to move the training period to the fall.
Bobsled and skeleton’s training periods , to be held from October 5 to November 2 of 2021) will be held separately with bobsled going first and then skeleton. At the end of each of those training periods IBSF-sanctioned races will be held, however it is currently unclear if these races will be considered World Cup events or some other International race.
The World Cup event that was scheduled for Yanqing will be moved to another location. Like the FIL, the IBSF is currently working with various venues to find a replacement track for the season finale.
Earlier in the week, the International Luge Federation decided to also move its World Cup race elsewhere and host their ITP in the fall.
The full letter from the IBSF to its national federations is below:
Dear IBSF National Federations,
In the past weeks we have been in close contact with the Beijing 2022 Organizing Committee todiscuss the likelihood of organizing the International Training Period (ITP) and BMW IBSF Bob &Skeleton World Cup Beijing 2021 under the challenging circumstances the COVID-19 pandemic
causes to all of us.
It has now been agreed with all parties that the ITP will be moved to October (5th of October to 2nd of November 2021) with Bobsleigh and Skeleton being split in two periods. Bobsleigh will start, followed by Skeleton. At the end of each period an IBSF sanctioned race will be held; the BMW IBSF Bobsleigh & Skeleton World Cup, which was originally scheduled for March 2021, will not be held in October
2021. A replacement for the World Cup in March 2021 will be announced next week.
We want to thank the Organizing Committee Beijing 2022 and also the FIL, which we coordinated the
training sessions with as well, for their cooperation and open discussion.
