A total of 14,000 athletes wanted to take part in the Qualification in Canada and in Munich thousands of fans had to be turned away at the gates because of over-crowding. And with 23 nations represented in total at both legs of the world championship there will be more countries taking part than in almost every Olympic competition in Vancouver.
More than 100,000 people are expected to pack the narrow streets of Quebec City’s old town on Saturday, March 20 for the final showdown of the Red Bull Crashed Ice World Championship. It has become a tradition in the French-Canadian city on the St. Lawrence Seaway with races staged here for the last four years in a row. This year Quebec will be the venue for the world championship for the first time in history. The track builders have been working hard on the 550-meter-long track made out of artificial ice that is filled with tight turns and extreme hurdles.
It promises to be another great spectator spectacle with bruising man-to-man battles and more than a few spills involving 100 athletes from a total of 15 countries in Quebec City. It is more than an enormous sporting challenge – it is, as Finland’s professional hockey player Lari Joutsenlahti described it, “the coolest thing on ice“.
Canadians will be going all out to win with Kevin Olsen (2nd) as well as the Finns, who will be chasing the winner at Munich, Martin Niefnecker of Germany. The Finns are especially eager to get revenge after some controversial jousting on the track between Niefnecker and Joutsenlahti in Munich.
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