where do bobsledders train

Bobsledders train in a mix of specialized ice tracks, indoor “ice houses,” push tracks, and regular gyms and tracks for strength and speed work.

Main places bobsledders train

• Official bobsled tracks: There are only a handful of full-length ice tracks worldwide, so elite athletes typically base themselves at major venues like Lake Placid, New York, and Park City, Utah in the U.S., and similar Olympic tracks in Europe and Canada.

• Olympic training centers: In the U.S., bobsledders use facilities in Lake Placid that include housing, gyms, and direct access to the track and start areas.

• Indoor “ice houses”: These are short refrigerated push tracks where athletes practice the explosive start on real ice even in summer, such as the Mount Van Hoevenberg Ice House in Lake Placid.

How they train without snow

• Push tracks on dry land: Athletes use wheeled sleds on special tracks to rehearse pushing and loading into the sled when there’s no ice.

• Weight rooms: A large portion of time is spent lifting heavy (squats, Olympic lifts) to build the power needed to accelerate a 300–400 lb sled.

• Sprint tracks: Bobsledders do short sprints (often 60–100 meters) to maximize speed and acceleration, mirroring the explosive start phase of a run.

Where athletes live and train day to day

• Some athletes live year-round near tracks like Lake Placid or Park City to get frequent runs on ice during the season.

• Many others live in their hometowns most of the year, focusing on sprinting and strength training locally, then travel to bobsled tracks for seasonal camps and competitions.

TL;DR: Bobsledders don’t just “live on a mountain” – they split time between a few elite ice tracks (like Lake Placid and Park City), indoor ice houses, push tracks, and regular gyms and running tracks to build the speed and power they need.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.