For the past year, the city of Boston has been the home of championship parades as two of their four major sports teams have won world titles.
So how do you top numerous championship parades in one town?
You build an ice race course in one of the most iconic ball parks in America and tell skaters to race four wide down the track, first one to the finish wins.
Insane right? Welcome to Red Bull Crashed Ice.
First off, let’s get you up to date with the stats on the track.
- No matter the weather, the track gets built over a six-week long period.
- It takes 35,000 crew hours to build the course structure, including scaffolding, track features boards and ice.
- Since, World Championships are won on the Fenway field, 107,000 square feet of aluminum flooring was used to protect the field.
- 9,000 pieces of steel scaffolding was set up to build the height of the track so gravity could do its’ work as the skaters work their way down the course.
- More than 124,000 gallons of water was used to create the ice by misting 60,000 linear feet of cooling mats 24-hours per day for six days. When the sun comes out so do the tarps to cover the ice. Do you think they use the same tarp crew the Red Sox use to cover up the field during the rain?
But that is not all. Aside from the in venue build, there is the production of the event so you can see it live if you are not in person through Red Bull TV and their partner Fox Sports. Three mobile production trucks take the feed from inside the stadium and bring it to you live. Over 100 people work behind the scenes to make it happen in real time, bringing you as close to the action as feasibly possible unless you want to compete yourself.
The idea of skating on the ice in Fenway Park was so enticing to not pass up, so this former hockey player of a decade strapped up the skates and tightened the pads and gave the ice a go. I can tell you first hand, even with the experience of skating, I felt like a baby deer walking for the first time.
It was after that humbling experience that I sat down with World Champions of Red Bull Crashed Ice, Cameron Naasz and Amanda Trunzo who are both former collegiate hockey players to find out that you can have all the ice skating experience in the world and it wont matter once you hit a crashed ice course. It takes hundreds of hours training on and off the ice to be ready to race. Just ask gold medalist Team USA Hockey player Hilary Knight who gave it a go on the ice.
“I think I will stick to hockey,” said Knight. She was quick to add to that comment though with “For now” said with a wink.
When all was done, both Naasz and Trunzo were wearing Red Bull Crashed Ice Championship rings akin to the World Series rings the Red Sox were wearing after both took the title in Boston.
“Winning here was easily one of the coolest wins of my career,” said Naasz. “After my last race in Finland, I went home to get my mind right and get ready for this week. I was so hungry this race and it was so important for me to get the win.”
Amanda Trunzo of the United States, Tamara Meuwissen of the United States, Myriam Trepanier of Canada and Anais Morand of Switzerland compete at the sixth stage of the ATSX Ice Cross Downhill World Championship at the Red Bull Crashed Ice at Fenway Park stadium in Boston, USA on February 9, 2019. 
Cameron Naasz of the United States, Scott Croxall of Canada Luca Dallago of Austria and Tristan Dugerdil of France compete at the sixth stage of the ATSX Ice Cross Downhill World Championship at the Red Bull Crashed Ice at Fenway Park stadium in Boston, USA on February 9, 2019.
Trunzo echoed the same feelings. “It meant a lot to get the win here in Boston. I went to college at Dartmouth right down the road from here so I had a lot of friends from college in the stands tonight. I could hear them yelling my name the entire night. The atmosphere was amazing and I can use this as momentum to finishing the season strong and winning the overall title again.”
If you missed the finals live, guess what? You can watch them again right here.
https://www.redbull.com/int-en/tv/embed/live/AP-1XGTRKHNW2111