September 11, 2013
DeBotech in Mooresville helps Olympic sleds go faster
Ken Elkins, Charlotte Business Journal
Hans deBot believes he can do even more to improve the American Olympic sledding athletes’ chances at Sochi, Russia, later this year.
Four Olympic athletes visited deBot’s Mooresville company, deBotech Inc., today to check out composite parts for a new ProtoStar V5 skeleton sled that will be used in the 2014 Winter Olympic Games.
The president of deBotech has already helped with composite parts for the four-man bobsled. He offers the parts at cost because he wants U.S. team to win.
“It’s pride,” he says. “It’s definitely not the money.”
Katie Uhlaender, who came to Mooresville to be fitted for the composite skeleton sled parts, won the 2012 World Champion on a sled that deBot helped to develop. It will be the third Olympics for Uhlaender.
“Hans is enabling us to create the perfect design” for the Skeleton sled, she says. The sleds hold one person who zooms down ice tracks.
Tomorrow, the athletes go across town to A2 Wind Tunnel for tests to help them determine the best racing position on the 75-pound sleds.
Other athletes on the trip to Mooresville are 2010 Olympian John Daly, and World Cup competitors Matt Antoine and Kyle Tress. Zach Lund, sled-driving coach, also came along.
DeBot started deBotech in his garage in 1997 and incorporated in 1999. Today the 22-employee company makes carbon-fiber parts for NASCAR and automakers, along with the military and aerospace customers. The company makes the hood scoops on the Camaro ZL1 cars.
Photo Caption: Skeleton sled 2012 World Champion, left, and Hans deBot hold a sled with composite parts designed in Mooresville.
Photo: Ken Elkins