The FIBT World Championships 2008 ran February 11–24, 2008 in

Altenberg, Germany Altenberg () is a town in the Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge district, in Saxony, Germany. Geography The town is situated in the Ore Mountains, 32 km south of Dresden, and 15 km northwest of Teplice, Czech Republic. The village of ...

for the fifth time, having done so in

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

(

bobsleigh Bobsleigh or bobsled is a team winter sport that involves making timed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sleigh. International bobsleigh competitions are governed by the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Feder ...

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

(

skeleton A skeleton is the structural frame that supports the body of an animal. There are several types of skeletons, including the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside ...

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

(skeleton), and

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

(men's bobsleigh). It is the first time Altenberg has hosted all of those events at one

championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

, and also includes the mixed team event (one run each of men's skeleton, women's skeleton, 2-man bobsleigh, and 2-women bobsleigh) that debuted at the 2007 championships. Training for the events took place February 12–14 for two-man and two-woman bobsleigh, and February 19–20 for skeleton and four-man bobsleigh.

Non-competitive events

*Practice for men's and women's bobsleigh was cancelled on February 12 to

fog Fog is a visible aerosol consisting of tiny water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the air at or near the Earth's surface. Reprint from Fog can be considered a type of low-lying cloud usually resembling stratus, and is heavily influ ...

and moist air which affected track visibility. Additional training took place on the 13th.

Bobsleigh

Two man

February 16–17, 2008. 30 sleds were scheduled to compete. 26 sleds finished with one team disqualified after the first run, one team not finishing the second run, and two teams not starting after the third run. Lange and Kuske won their third two-man world championship and fifth overall.

Four man

February 23–24, 2008. 24 sleds competed with 20 finishing. Lange swept both events with the fastest times in each heat. It was his second sweep at the

FIBT World Championships The IBSF World Championships (known as the FIBT World Championships until 2015), part of the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation, have taken place on an annual basis since 1930. Starting with 2002, championships of non-Winter Olympic ...

, having done so in

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and his third overall, counting the

2006 Winter Olympics The 2006 Winter Olympics, officially the XX Olympic Winter Games ( it, XX Giochi olimpici invernali) and also known as Torino 2006, were a winter multi-sport event held from 10 to 26 February 2006 in Turin, Italy. This marked the second t ...

Two woman

February 15–16, 2008. 25 sleds were scheduled to compete. 23 sleds actually did with one withdrawing after the first run, one withdrawing after the second run, and two crashing out during the fourth run. This event marks the first ever sweep in the bobsleigh part of the

championships In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

' history and only the second time ever in any event in the championships' history with

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being the first to do so in skeleton at

Igls Innsbruck (; bar, Innschbruck, label=Austro-Bavarian ) is the capital of Tyrol and the fifth-largest city in Austria. On the River Inn, at its junction with the Wipp Valley, which provides access to the Brenner Pass to the south, it had a pop ...

. Counting the

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, this is Kiriasis's fourth straight World or Olympic championships in this event. Several crashes occurred the two-day event.

Skeleton

Men

February 21–22, 2008. Bromley is the first

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

athlete to win a world

since

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. Changing ice conditions complicated the sliding, causing five top sliders to leave their starting grooves.

Women

February 22–23, 2008. Huber won her second gold of the while Uhlaender won her second medal of the championships. It was Germany's fourth gold at the championships.

Mixed team

February 18, 2008. Six teams took part in the event. Germany won their second gold medal in these championships.

Medal table

References

{{Bobsleigh-Skeleton World Championships 2008 in bobsleigh IBSF World Championships 2008 in skeleton Sport in Altenberg, Saxony International sports competitions hosted by Germany 2008 in German sport Bobsleigh in Germany 2000s in Saxony