Two Minnesota Athletes Partake in Crashed Ice
Saint Paul welcomes Red Bull's Crashed Ice this weekend, February 3-4. The Ice Cross Downhill World Championship returns with two Minnesotans, Maxwell Dunne and defending champion Cameron Naasz, competing. At the midpoint of the season both Dunne and Naasz are leading the world championship.
For five years, St. Paul has been home to Red Bull’s Crashed Ice, and the first weekend in February the event returns to Minnesota’s capital city for the sixth year.
Red Bull Crashed Ice was created in 2001 and became the world championship in 2010. According to redbullcontentpool.com, during the Red Bull Crashed Ice, athletes race “four-at-a-time down narrow obstacle-filled ice tracks of up to about 600 meters long at speeds of up to 80 km/h in a mad dash to the frozen finish line in an attempt to take first or second place and thus advance to the next round. The world’s fastest sport on skates is now part of the ATSX Ice Cross Downhill World Championship. Athletes from more than 20 countries and five continents take part in races held on artificial or natural ice tracks set up on slopes in the center of major cities or at ski resorts in Europe and North America.”
The Red Bull Crashed Ice season calendar makes several stops during the season. It was in Marseille, France, from Jan. 13-14; and Jyväsklyä-Laajis, Finland, from Jan. 20-21. This weekend in Saint Paul, then Ottawa, Canada, from March 3-4. The Riders Cup calendar included Wagrain-Kleinarl, Austria, on Dec. 10; Rautalampi, Finland, on Jan. 28; and Sherbrooke, Canada, on Jan. 28. Then Moscow, Russia, on Feb. 4; La Sarre, Canada, on Feb. 18; and Bathurst, Canada on Feb. 25.