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.jpg) Georg Hackl's four-person woksled during the Wok World Championship 2006 inInnsbruck | |
| First played | 2003 |
|---|---|
| Characteristics | |
| Team members | Teams of 1 or 4 |
| Type | Winter sport, Time trial |
| Equipment | Wok |
| Venue | Bobsleigh tracks |
Wok racing is a sport developed by the German TV host and entertainerStefan Raab in which modifiedwoks are used to make timed runs down an Olympicbobsleigh track. There are competitions for one-person woksleds and four-person woksleds, the latter using four woks per sled.
Wok racing was inspired by a bet in the German TV showWetten, dass..?. In November 2003, theFirst official Wok World Championship was broadcast fromWinterberg. The immediate success led to the second world championship inInnsbruck on March 4, 2004. Participants are mostly b-list celebrities like musical artists, actors, and TV hosts, but there are also known athletes that have ongoing professional careers in winter sports, like three-time Olympicluge championGeorg Hackl and theJamaican Bobsled Team.
The third championship took place again in Winterberg on March 5, 2005. In contrast to the previous championships, there were two runs in which all contesters participated. The times of both runs were added. As a further innovation a qualifying round was created in which the participants had to jump from a trickski-jump with woks to determine the starting order. Further the sport event was professionalized.[citation needed]
Typical racing woks are usually directly imported from China. The only modifications are that the bottom is reinforced with anepoxy filling and heated with ablowlamp. Four-person woksleds consist of two pairs of woks, each of them is held together by a rounded frame. The two pairs are connected by a coupling. Due to the rather risky nature of the sport the participants wear heavy protective gear, usually similar toice hockey equipment. To further reducefriction and the risk of injuries, the athletes wearladles under their feet.[1]
Public wok racing is only practiced once a year at The "World Wok Racing Championships" (German: Wok-WM,German pronunciation:[ˈvɔk.veːˌɛm], lit. Wok Worldcup) which is aired as special edition of Raab's showTV total on the German television channelProSieben. The network used to declare these broadcasts as sporting events. Under German law that allowed the network to treat the massive corporate sponsorship of the event as incidental advertising which didn't count against Germany's strict rules regarding time limits for TV commercials. After a Berlin court ruling in 2009, however, the shows have to be labeled as aninfomercial, since – unlike a regular sporting event – the races are explicitly staged for the TV broadcast, and there is strong evidence that the profits of the event sponsorship directly benefit the network.[2]
November 6, 2003:Winterberg
March 4, 2004:Innsbruck March 5, 2005: Winterberg March 11, 2006: Innsbruck March 9, 2007: Innsbruck March 8, 2008:Altenberg March 7, 2009: Winterberg March 19, 2010:Oberhof March 12, 2011: Innsbruck March 10, 2012:Königssee March 2, 2013: Oberhof March 8, 2014: Königssee March 14, 2015: Innsbruck November 12, 2022: Winterberg November 11, 2023: Winterberg
| Place | Speed in km/h | Holder | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Innsbruck | 91.70 | Georg Hackl | 2007 |
| Altenberg | 81.80 | 2008 | |
| Winterberg | 105.40 | 2009 | |
| Oberhof | 69.40 | 2010 | |
| Königsee | 88.20 | 2012 |
| Place | Speed in km/h | Holder | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Winterberg | 114.3 | Elton & Friends | 2009 |
| Innsbruck | 97.00 | FROSTA | 2006 |
| Place | Time in seconds | Holder | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Winterberg | 47.621 | Georg Hackl | 2005 |
| Innsbruck | 54.840 | 2007 |
| Place | Time in seconds | Holder | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Winterberg | 57.117 | TV total | 2005 |
| Innsbruck | 52.527 | Fisherman's Friend | 2006 |
