Q 01/05

The first bobsleds were built in the 1880s by wealthy tourists from which country?

A) Britain

B) Switzerland

C) Germany

D) United States

Answer · why

A) Britain

Wealthy British tourists at Caspar Badrutt's Palace Hotel adapted boys' delivery sleds and toboggans to race down the town's streets.

Q 02/05

Where does the name bobsleigh come from?

A) A Swiss hotelier named Bob Badrutt

B) Competitors bobbing back and forth to gain speed

C) The bobbin-shaped runners of early sleds

D) The English town of Bobbington

Answer · why

B) Competitors bobbing back and forth to gain speed

The bobbing did not really help, but the name stuck to the sport and the sled.

Q 03/05

Which hotelier got English guests to winter in St. Moritz, effectively inventing the winter resort?

A) Johannes Kulm

B) César Ritz

C) Caspar Badrutt

D) Anton Seiler

Answer · why

C) Caspar Badrutt

He was frustrated that his hotel was only busy in summer, and by the 1870s wintering in St. Moritz was fashionable in Victorian Britain.

Q 04/05

Why were the early sledders in St. Moritz eventually banned from the public roads?

A) Noise complaints from hotel guests

B) Damage to the cobbled streets

C) A fatal crash involving a mail coach

D) Too many collisions with pedestrians

Answer · why

D) Too many collisions with pedestrians

Badrutt's solution in the late 1870s was to build a natural-ice run outside town near the hamlet of Cresta.

Q 05/05

The basic early bobsleigh was made by joining two of what together with a board?

A) Two skeleton sleds

B) Two pairs of skis

C) Two milk churns

D) Two barrel staves

Answer · why

A) Two skeleton sleds

The joined sleds got a steering mechanism at the front, which allowed longer, faster runs through the town.