II. Olympic Winter Games 1928
February 1928: The “Roaring Twenties” are buzzing, the economy is flourishing, the car is becoming a common item, jazz is the new attitude to life. Here in St. Moritz, however, people meet to hold sporting competitions that would still cause a shaking of heads elsewhere.
For some decades now, English gentlemen have been building bobsleigh runs or jumping from ski jumps in St. Moritz. And these seemingly purposeless but entertaining activities have long been supported. For the Second Olympic Winter Games in 1928, an Olympic ski jump was built for 257,000 Swiss francs, and a total of 700,000 Swiss francs were invested in the organisation of the Winter Games.
Amateur athletes from all over the world, or rather from 25 nations, are now gathering in St. Moritz to compete in six sports. However, the weather is their biggest challenge: in the middle of the Games, the legendary St. Moritz sun is too kind to the athletes, and the temperature rises to 25 degrees. The cross-country skiers hardly make any progress in the wet snow, especially the Norwegians who have all chosen the wrong ski wax. And figure skating becomes a spectacle between puddles of water.
The arrival of summer in the wintry Engadine disrupts the entire programme, and the 10,000-metre speed skating event is cancelled altogether. Nevertheless, the II. Winter Olympics 1928 attracted almost 40,000 enthusiastic spectators. And they were actually the first independent Winter Games, because the competitions of the “International Winter Sports Week” in Chamonix in 1924 were only retrospectively declared to be Olympic Winter Games.
During the Winter Games, the international health resort of St. Moritz will even become the Olympic village itself. The 500 or so athletes and a good 500 officials and press representatives are accommodated in hotels and not, as at later Games, in a tent city or camp. And since the athletes do not yet have sponsorship contracts worth millions and do not earn anything at all from their sport, the accommodation prices are between 10 and 18 Swiss Francs…
Skeleton
Olympic Games 1928
Friday, 17 February 1928: The 11th Earl of Northesk sits on a public bench and collects himself. Right next to him, Jennison Heaton is also preparing for the skeleton race. After three heats, there are only 3.3 seconds between the Brit and the American. At the end of the race, however, there will be two Heatons in front of the Earl: Jennison Heaton wins the skeleton race, while his younger brother John Rutherford Heaton takes Silver.
Just a few days earlier, the 11th Earl of Northesk had set a record on the Cresta Run, the skeleton course. But today he drifted too high in a curve, had to brake and lost valuable time. But the Earl, David Ludovic George Hopetoun Carnegie by name, fared better than the Frenchman Pierre Dormeuil and the Swiss Willy von Eschen. They both missed a turn and were thrown out of the track.
The Heaton brothers are not winners by chance. Jennison Heaton hurtles down the neighbouring Bobsleigh Run on Saturday and wins Silver with USA I. And John Rutherford Heaton wins Silver again 20 years later, at the V. Winter Olympics in St. Moritz.
History: The Cresta Run skeleton track has been built from snow and iced over annually since the winter of 1884/1885.
Language: As the track and the sport have British origins, English is still traditionally spoken today.
Speed: Riders can reach top speeds of up to 140 km/h (today).
Exclusivity: Admission to the exclusive Shuttlecock Club is restricted to those who have been catapulted out of the curve of the same name into the run-off zone.
Medalists
Friday, 17 February 1928
1st: Jennison Heaton (USA), 181,8 s
2nd: John Rutherford Heaton (USA), 182,8 s
3rd: David Ludovic G. Carnegie (GBR), 185,1 s
(aggregate times of three runs in each case)
Bobsleigh
Olympic Games 1928
Saturday, 18 February 1928: What a team! William Mead Lindsley Fiske, the pilot, is only 16 years old. Nion Robert Tucker on the other hand, is a seasoned entrepreneur, while Geoffrey Travers Mason is still a student. Richard Averell Parke is a World War I veteran, and Clifford Barton Gray is only there because he happens to be visiting St. Moritz.
“Head first” is how these five Americans hurtle down the Bobsleigh Run from St. Moritz to Celerina. Yes, head first! Or as this style is called in French: “ventre à terre”. After two runs it is clear: this team of characters, USA II, wins. The team is followed by Team USA I, whose pilot Jennison Heaton had just become the Olympic champion in Skeleton the previous day.
Four runs were actually planned for these Winter Games, two each on Thursday and Friday. However, the spring-like weather on the previous Wednesday led to numerous changes in the program including on the Bobsleigh Run. Nevertheless, the race was spectacular. And not without danger: in 1929, the “ventre à terre” style was banned – and helmets were made compulsory.
History: The Bob Run was first built in 1903 and was inaugurated on 1 January 1904, making it the oldest existing bobsleigh track in the world and the only natural ice bobsleigh track.
Volume: Around 15,000 cubic metres of snow are needed each autumn to build the natural ice track, making it the largest snow sculpture in the world.
Guest-friendly: Guest rides are also offered on the Bob Run (today).
Five-man bobsleigh Medalists
Saturday, 18 February 1928
1st: USA II (Fiske, Tucker, Mason, Gray, Parke), 03 : 20,5 min
2nd: USA I (Heaton, Doe, Granger, Hine, O’Brian), 03 : 21,0 min
3rd: GER II (Kilian, Krempel, Heß, Huber, Nägle), 03 : 21,9 min
(aggregate time after two runs, two further runs were omitted)
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