section of Capital Creek directly back to the Lech river. The 1971 construction cost was 14.9 million Deutsche Marks, equivalent to $24.5 million US (2013). For the 1972 Olympics, this new channel was only the bottom half of a 660-meter race course; the top half was in the old Eiskanal, starting above the boat house near the dam. Since the standard length of a canoe slalom course was later reduced to 250 to 300 meters, major races are now held entirely within the 1971 channel. Nonetheless, the entire sports complex goes by the name Eiskanal. To prepare for the 1972 Olympics, East Germany's team constructed a secret copy of the Eiskanal on the Zwickau Mulde river in the Cainsdorf district of Zwickau. The training there, on the world's only other artificial rapid, was so successful that East German paddlers won all four Olympic gold medals in canoe slalom, the only time that has ever happened. The ruins of the long-abandoned, overgrown canal can still be seen in satellite photographs at . Design Using a technique which has never been duplicated, the streambed of the Eiskanal canoe slalom channel was made of sculpted concrete, with simulated boulders being an integral part of the uneven channel floor. This feature is easily seen in photographs of the channel without water. The shapes were planned using water flowing through a 25-meter-long scale model made of sheet metal. Most of the simulated boulders are attached to the channel walls, but two stand alone in the middle of the channel. Five barn-door water deflectors, hinged to the channel sides, can be swung in or out to change the water flow at those locations. An underwater weir at the top can be raised to block most or all of the flow into the slalom channel from Capital Creek. At the bottom, a stationary weir creates a take-out pool. A pedestrian bridge on top of the weir supports a strainer that keeps people and boats from washing over. The strainer is slanted toward the river so anything that washes against it is pushed up rather than down. Six names have been given to sections of the channel. The turbulent water between the first drop and the first rock island is called Waschmaschine, or Washing Machine. Where the channel narrows and drops at the pedestrian bridge is Bogenbrücke, or Arch Bridge. It has a pair of hinged water deflectors