Marc Müller, Red Bull
Athletes compete in the Ice Cross Downhill World Championship at the Red Bull Crashed Ice in Munich on Jan. 9.The Red Bull Crashed Ice Competition will be making its first appearance in the nation’s capital next year.
Ottawa 2017 and Mayor Jim Watson, in collaboration with lead partner CIBC, announced today that the event in which skaters race down a massive ice track filled with huge drops, sharp turns and jumps will take place next to the Fairmont Château Laurier near the Ottawa locks and the Rideau Canal in March 2017.
This iconic location will be transformed into a huge ice track for this lavish competition.
Ottawa 2017, Parks Canada and Red Bull are working together to ensure that everything will be done to preserve and protect the historical features of this heritage site.
“Parks Canada is working with partners to help the Rideau Canal be a premier tourism destination. Events like Red Bull Crashed Ice in Ottawa can help promote our country’s rich history and enable Canadians to learn more about our heritage,” says federal Environment Minister and MP for Ottawa Centre Catherine McKenna, who was in Davos, Switzerland, at the time of the announcement.
“We are very thrilled that Red Bull has joined our sesquicentennial celebration right here in the nation’s capital and together we will deliver this amazing spectator sport free of charge for spectators,” says Watson.
Red Bull Crashed Ice has been hosted for the past 16 years with over 50 races in places around the globe.
“Canadians are passionate about winter sports and Red Bull Crashed Ice is a show-stopping celebration of our shared winter culture,” says Guy Laflamme, executive director of the Ottawa 2017 bureau.
“This prestigious international sporting event will showcase the capital to tens of millions of people in Canada and around the world.”
“Red Bull Crashed Ice is expected to draw a record attendance to the national capital region. This will generate over, and I’m told very conservative, ten million dollars for the local economy and the province as a whole,” said Marie-France Lalonde (MPP, Ottawa-Orléans) who was speaking on behalf of the Province of Ontario.
World-championship athletes from around the world will gather in Ottawa for the 2017 event, and the winners for the men and women’s Ice Cross Downhill World Championship will be crowned.
“It’s the fastest sport on skates to have ever existed,” says Christian Papillon, Red Bull Crashed Ice sports director and a former Red Bull Crashed racer, “reaching up to 82km/h.”
“We can’t wait to showcase the action to people in Ottawa.”
The March dates for the Ice Cross Downhill World Championship will be announced when Red Bull releases the 2016-2017 race schedules later this fall.