The Winter Olympics skeleton competition is a thrilling head-first sliding sport. Athletes start by running about 30 meters to gain speed, then leap onto their sleds, reaching speeds over 80 mph. Steering involves subtle body and leg shifts, with chins just inches from the ice.
Former U.S. skeleton athlete John Daly was once asked why anyone would decide to hurl themselves, head first, down an ice-coated mountainside chute on a thin sled with no safety equipment other than a helmet.
Daly laughed. “If I knew that, I probably wouldn’t be out here,” he said.
Skeleton will be the sport for thrill-seekers to watch during the Milan Cortina Olympics. Not everyone can skate, not everyone has been on skis, very few would dare to try ski jumping, but anyone who has ever played in the snow probably knows the feeling of what skeleton athletes get on race day. It’s the thrill of being on a sled, picking up speed, trying to figure out how to steer without having anything to steer with, then getting up and doing it all over again.
It’s been in the Olympics since 1928, but took two long hiatuses and returned to the program in 2002.
