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Overview

Skeleton is an Olympic winter sport in which competitors aim to drive a one-person sled in a prone, head-first position down an ice track in the fastest time. The sport differs from luge, where the rider drives the sled from a supine, feet-first orientation, and from bobsleigh, which involves a two or four-person team sitting upright.

Skeleton is one of the oldest competitive sledding sports in the world, and takes takes its name from the stripped-down sled, which originally was a bare frame, like a skeleton. There is also a theory about the name that it is a mispronunciation of the Norwegian word kjelke ("sled", "luge").

The Sport

Skeleton is a fast-moving sliding sport during which athletes experience forces of up to 5Gs, and reach speeds of up to 140 km/h (87 mph).

Athletes begin by pushing their sled in a bent-over sprinting position before diving on head first and assuming a prone sliding position. Steering is accomplished by slight shifts of the athlete's weight on the sled using shoulders and knees, as well as by using the head as a rudder and by dragging the feet.

The start is crucial in skeleton – a tenth of a second lead at the start can become three-tenths of a second by the bottom of the run – so athletes train much like sprinters to develop the powerful legs they need to explode onto the track. The sprinting start is not the only component, however, and skeleton athletes must also develop driving skills in order to successfully navigate their sled down the fastest path on the track.

The major competitions of non-Olympic seasons include the World Championships and World Cups races, as well as the Intercontinental Cup Circuit races. The development circuits comprise the Europa Cup and Americas' Cup.

General rules

• Skeleton must use the same track as bobsleigh and luge, at least 1200 m (1312 yards) long
• A run begins with a running "push" phase (typically 25 to 40 metres)
• After pushing, the athlete dives onto the sled and descends the track
• Athletes must lie prone, facing downhill, with arms at their sides
• Only the force produced by the athlete and the force of gravity are permitted to propel the skeleton
• The skeleton must be steered by movements of the athlete's body

Equipment worn by athletes

• racing helmet with chin guard and face shield
• skin-tight racing speedsuit
• brush spike shoes, similar to track spikes
• optional elbow and shoulder pads under their suit

The Sled

The ‘toboggans’ used in Alpine countries at the end of the 19th century were inspired by Canadian/Indian sleds used for transport. Various additions and redesigning efforts by athletes have led to the skeleton sleds used today.

In 1892, L.P. Child introduced the “America,” a new metal sled that revolutionized skeleton as a sport. The stripped-down design provided a compact sled with metal runners, and the design caught on quickly.

Today, the FIBT restricts the materials with which skeleton sleds are permitted to be made. Sled frames must be made of steel and may not include steering or braking mechanisms. The protective covering below is made of fibreglass and handles are found along the sides of the sled to help secure the athlete during a run. Four steel bumpers are attached along the side of the sled to absord the impact in the vent that a slider taps the track walls.

Sled weights are restricted according to the combined weight of a slider.

Some athletes opt to attach weight plates to their sled if the combined weight of athlete and sled runs below the maximum combined weight. However, these ballasts may only be added to the sled, not the rider.

The Track

Skeleton shares the same tracks as the sports of bobsleigh and luge. Most races take place on man-made, artificially-cooled ice surfaces, though some natural ice tracks, such as St. Moritz, are still used.

The tracks run from 1200 – 1650 m, 1200 m of which are downhill. The final 100 – 150 m may contain uphill stretches that are no greater than 12% gradient.

The starting area is composed of a 15 m push-off stretch followed by a straight 60 m stretch during which the athlete typically reach speeds up to 35 km/h. A strting block, or push-off block is installed at the start line to allow athletes to push-off, much like a sprinter. The first 50m section of the track has grooves cut into the ice to allow athlete directional control as they sprint beside their sled.

Most tracks contain a combination of 14-20 curves, bending in both directions, along with straightaways, and take between 50 - 75 seconds to navigate.

The final section of the track, past the finish line, is an uphill braking stretch known as the outrun, which serves to slow athletes down naturally.

History

The sport of skeleton can be traced back to the British of the late 19th century. English soldiers in Switzerland constructed a toboggan track between the cities of Davos and Klosters in 1882. While toboggan tracks certainly were not uncommon at the time, the added challenge of curves and bends in the Swiss track distinguished it from those of Canada and the United States.

Approximately 30 km away in the winter sports town of St. Moritz, British gentlemen had long enjoyed racing one another down the busy, winding streets of the town, causing an uproar among citizens with the danger posed to pedestrians and visiting tourists.

In 1884, Major Bulpetts, with the backing of winter sports pioneer and Kulm hotel owner Caspar Badrutt, constructed the Cresta Run, the first sledding track of its kind in St. Moritz. The track ran three-quarters of a mile from St. Moritz to Celerina and contained 10 turns still used today. When the Winter Olympic Games were held at St. Moritz in 1928 and 1948, the Cresta Run was included in the program, marking the only two times skeleton was included as an Olympic event before its permanent addition in 2002 to the Olympic Winter Games.

In the 1887 Grand National competition in St. Moritz, Mr. Cornish introduced the now traditional head-first position, a trend that was in full force by the 1890 Grand National. Until 1905, skeleton was practiced mainly in Switzerland; however, in 1905, Austria held its first skeleton competition in Muerzzuschlag. This opened the door to other national skeleton competitions including the Austrian championship held the following year. In 1908 and 1910, skeleton competitions were held in the Viennese Semmering Mountain.

As the popularity of the sport grew in Europe, skeleton evolved into the sport recognized today. In 1892, the sled was transformed by L.P. Child, an Englishman. The newly designed bare-bones sled resembled a human skeleton, and the sport adopted its modern name of skeleton, though it is still recognized as tobboganing in many countries.

In 1923, the Federation Internationale de Bobsleigh et de Tobogganing (FIBT) was established as the governing body of the sport. Soon afterward (1926), the International Olympic Committee declared bobsleigh and skeleton as Olympic sports and adopted the rules of the St. Mortiz run as the officially recognized Olympic rules. It was not until 2002, however, that skeleton itself was added permanently to the Olympic program with the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Popularity in the sport has grown since the 2002 Winter Olympics and now includes participation by smaller countries that do not have or cannot have a track because of climate, terrain or monetary limitations. Athletes from such countries as Australia, New Zealand, Bermuda, South Africa, Argentina, Iraq, Mexico, Brazil and even the Virgin Islands have become involved with the sport in recent years. However, the FIBT narrows the field greatly and only a few dozen countries compete in the Olympic Games.