International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation

The International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (IBSF) is the international sports federation for the sliding sports of Bobsleigh and Skeleton. It was founded on 23 November 1923 by the delegates of Great Britain, France, Switzerland, Canada, and the United States at the meeting of their first International Congress in Paris, France. In June 2015, it announced a name change from FIBT to IBSF. The federation's headquarters are in Lausanne, Switzerland. The IBSF works closely with the IOC to conduct Winter Olympics every four years. Along with the Winter Olympics, the IBSF hosts World Championships the other three years. The races are hosted on tracks in North America, Europe, and Asia. The tracks are shared with the sport of Luge, although that is managed under a different governing body, the International Luge Federation. History of Bobsleigh The world's first bobsleigh club was founded in St. Moritz, Switzerland in 1897. By 1904, competitions were taking place on natural ice courses (Olympia Bobrun St. Moritz-Celerina). This growth led to the creation of the FIBT in 1923 with inclusion into the International Olympic Committee (IOC) the following year. Before the IBSF, the organization was originally known by the French name Fédération Internationale de Bobsleigh et de Tobogganing (FIBT). At the 1924 Winter Olympics in Chamonix, the four-man event took place. In 1930, the first FIBT World Championships took place with the four-man event in Caux-sur-Montreux, Switzerland with the first two-man event taking place in Oberhof, Germany the following year. At the 1932 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, the two-man competition debuted. In 1935, a forerunner to the International Luge Federation, was absorbed into the FIBT and a "Section de Luge" was created. The luge section would be abolished when the FIL was split off in 1957.