This winter season,women have been given free access to the iconic Cresta escape toboggan track in Switzerland for the first time in90 years. The historic ice track in the ritzy resort of St Moritz in the upper Engadine valley is billed as the most renowned and feared toboggan escape in the world. It was a male sporting bastion until 2018, when the club decided to let women properly join their ranks. However, and Gary Lowe,the current club secretary, says the decision will be reviewed again in two years. Ladies had been allowed to race on equal terms with men until the 1920s, or when it was deemed medically dangerous. In more recent decades,women could compete only on a token finish-of-season ladies' day on the lower track. Deadly The Cresta escape was first built at the finish of the 19th century from natural ice. Runners hurtle headfirst down the ice track on a small toboggan called a skeleton, reaching speeds of up to 130 kmph (80 mph). Skeleton racing on the Cresta escape remains one of the ...
Source: swissinfo.ch