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Taiwan's bobsled team letting it slip

Taiwan did not crash, but it did slip badly in the standings at the bobsled event in Salt Lake City, Utah.

After the first two heats on Friday, Taiwan was in 31st place with a time of one minute, 38.05 seconds.

Previously, in practice, Taiwan had crashed three times but had made it into 23rd place.

The creditable performance showed that four-time Olympian Chen Chin-san (陳金山) has mastered the course and could be looking to make an impression in heats three and four yesterday.

US-1 pilot Todd Hays, a former US football linebacker, led the field with a time of 1:33.26 at the Utah Park track. New Zealand-1 and Virgin Islands-1 lost it on the bottom part of the course and finished on their sides in the first heat.

Virgin Islands had a bad spill and driver Keith Sudziarski was injured. Though cleared to run by medical staff after receiving eight stitches in his leg, he dropped out.

Taiwan first entered the Olympic bobsled event soon after it first started competing at the Winter Games in Sarajevo, 1984, under the name Chinese Taipei.

Chen has competed at four Olympics since then and is called the father of bobsledding in Taiwan.

The sport began in Taiwan however, with officials in the Forestry Commission, who built bobsled tracks on Hohuan Mountain (合歡山) to train its future Olympians.

"We wanted to introduce winter sports to cold countries," Hsu Chi-you (許啟祐), the honorary chairman of the country's luge and bobsled association said.

The nation even built an artificial track, but now focuses on sending its teams to Europe for first-class training and conditions.

This is where bobsledding has its origins, with the primitive pleasure of sitting on something and sliding down a hill of snow.

In the late 1800s, wealthy enthusiasts at Alpine resorts set out to develop the leisure and transport activity into a sport. Early bobs were two wooden slats bolted together with a board, which sliders rode head-first on. There was also a simple steering device. It was called bobsledding because of the way the crew "bobbed" their heads in the mistaken belief it would increase speed.

The International Bobsleigh and Tobogganing Federation was formed in 1923 and continues to represent the sport today. The Taiwan luge and bobsled association is a member.

Bobsledding was included in the first Winter Games, in Chamonix, France, in 1924.

Nowadays, bobsledding is a high-tech and expensive endeavor and it's usually the best bob that wins. Germany has been a powerhouse in the sport and relies on BMW engineering, wind-tunnel testing for aerodynamics and military-trained athletes.

The rich still maintain an interest, however, with Prince Albert competing for Monaco in Salt Lake City and presently 25th in the standings with 1:35.84.

Non-traditional winter sport countries like Taiwan, Morocco, Australia and Mexico have begun dabbling in bobsled.

The Jamaican bobsled team's adventure at the 1988 Calgary Games, whose story was made into the Disney movie Cool Runnings, focused media attention on the sport.

With the renewed emphasis on fast, powerful starters, nations strong in sprinting followed the Jamaicans' lead. Cash-rich countries like Taiwan were also able to compete in the sport by sending promising athletes to Europe for training and competition.

In recent years, the Swiss four-man crews have taken most of the medals, but Germany has been challenging and the US desperately wants to reverse nearly half a century of failure in the sport.
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