Sled Racing

Modern sledding began in St Moritz during the early 1870s when British visitors with more time than activities began to experiment and play around with boys' delivery sleds (much like the first picture) for recreation at the dawn of winter resorting in winter climes. Soon they were brainstorming on how to steer the old fashioned flat bottomed toboggan's typical of the time and added runners whilst terrorizing the pedestrians as they used the narrow lanes and streets of the picturesque town as a run and subsequently took to racing. Soon the Bobsled, Luge, and Skeleton were developed in succession. By mid-decade, Kulm hotel owner Caspar Badrutt had the first run or course purpose built for the fledgling sport, and alpine events began amongst the privileged leisure set.

News cof the rich and famous inspired the invention of the flexible flyer covered hereafter, which along with toboggan's were the prosaic substitute to the nascent competitive sports aborning among the beautiful people of wealth and leisure. Unlike purpose built courses, such sleds were available to the common man and usable on any suitably snow covered nearby slope.

Source: Wikipedia