Crashed Ice

Red Bull Crashed Ice was a world tour in ice cross downhill, a winter extreme sporting event which involves downhill skating in an urban environment, on a track which includes steep turns and high vertical drops. Racers speed down the course's turns, berms, and jumps. Competitors, having advanced from one of the tryouts in the prior months, race in heats of four skaters, with the top two advancing from each heat. The events were held from 2001 to 2019; the ATSX now oversees ice cross downhill events.

The series was created and is managed by energy drink company Red Bull. It is similar to ski cross and snowboard cross, except with ice skates on an ice track, instead of skis or snowboards on a snow track.^[1]

Racers are typically athletes with a background in ice hockey, however competitors from the sports of bandy and ringette have also competed with great success, such as Salla Kyhälä from Finland's national ringette team,^[2][3] who also played in Canada's National Ringette League, and Jasper Felder, a bandy player who became an ice cross downhill seven-time single event winner. As a bandy player, Felder represented the United States national bandy team,^[4][5][6] while in ice cross downhill, represented Sweden while equipped with ice hockey gear. Felder was first in the single-event in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2009, and twice in 2004.

From 2010 onwards a points system was introduced. After the season, the skater with the most points is crowned the world champion. Points are awarded to the top 100 racers. Points are awarded starting with 1000 for the winner, after that 800, 600, 500 and decreasing to 0.5 for place 100.

For the 2015 season, the Riders Cup events were instituted. The events were designed to make the sport more accessible to more skaters. For these events, skaters can earn up to 25% of the points that the main events are awarded, with percentages decreasing with each placing. Meaning that the winner receives 250 points, which is 25% of the main event 1000 points and it decreases to 1% of the main event points for the 64th finisher, who receives 2.5 points. Any placings 65th and beyond do not score any points.

As well, a new wrinkle was added to the overall championship called the "throw out" rule. If a competitor competes in all of the stops, up to a maximum of 12 events in future years, the lowest main event score and the lowest Riders Cup score will be thrown out. This will give the skater an adjusted score for the overall championship. Thus, meaning that it is in the skater's best interest to compete in all events.

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  Start of a race in 2008
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  A turn in the track in Quebec, 2007
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  4 racers in Quebec, 2008
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  Close racing, Quebec, 2008
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  4 racers in Quebec, 2011

• Red Bull’s Headlong Frozen Dash Is a Crash Course in Marketing, By Matt Higgins, New York Times, March 3, 2007
• Red Bull Crashed Ice returns to Quebec City, by Melissa Halarides, The Concordian, March 7, 2007
• A Downhill Ice Course, Full Hockey Gear and the Need for Speed, Market Wire, August 2006
• Crashed Ice: Le parcours de l'an dernier gonflé aux stéroïdes, by Ian Bussières, Le Soleil, January 25th 2008, P. 8 & 9

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Red Bull Crashed Ice.

• Official site