Winter Olympic Games

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Skeleton

Skeleton is one of the 'ice sports' on the Winter Olympic Games program. This extreme sport requires individuals to ride a small sled down a frozen track while lying face down and forward facing. Skeleton is a head-first version of the luge, and is run on the same track (as it bobseld). Amazingly, the skeleton sled has no steering or braking mechanism, they steer by movements of the body and travel at speeds up to 130 km/hr (80 mph).

Trivia

• The event of Skeleton appeared in St Moritz in 1948 for the first time since the previous St. Moritz Games 20 years earlier. American John Heaton won the silver, as he had done the previous time.

• In 2002, Skeleton returned as an event for the first time since 1948.

Related Pages

• videos of Skeleton
• about the Luge event
• more Winter Olympics Sports
• Winter Olympics main page.