Taking place on the same artificially refrigerated ice tracks, skeleton is one of the three sliding sports along with Bobsleigh and Luge.
The athlete pushes their sled one handed away from the start before lying down face first and negotiating the track, steering with their shoulders, knees and toes. Athletes can reach speeds of up to 140 km/h.
To find out more, please visit: http://www.bobskeleton.org.uk
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Considered the world’s first sliding sport, skeleton was started in the Swiss town of St. Moritz in the late 1800s. The first competition was held in 1884. Riders raced down the road from St. Moritz to Celerina, where the winner received a bottle of champagne. It was not until 1887 that riders began competing in the prone position used today. The sport received its name in 1892, when a new sled made mostly of metal was introduced. People thought it looked like a skeleton.
In 1923, the Federation Internationale de Bobsleigh et Tobagganing (FIBT), now formally known as the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation was founded. Three years later bobsleigh and skeleton were declared Olympic sports.
Skeleton is now one of the fastest sports in the world.
Skeleton had been a part of the Winter Olympics on five occasions the first two being in 1928 and 1948, both times in St Moritz, the Swiss town which was the birthplace of the sport back in the 1800s.
The sport was reintroduced in 2002 at the Salt Lake City Games where both mens and womens events took place. It has been part of the Games since then.
Skeleton is held on one of the artificially refrigerated ice tracks around the world which vary in length from around 1200 to 1500m.
At the Olympics skeleton is a four run event, with the gold medal going to the competitor with the best aggregate time.
Runs are timed electronically to the nearest hundredth of a second.
Athletes can reach over 140Km/h
Only the prone position is allowed, although competitors who come off the sled temporarily, are not disqualified if they cross the finish line back on the sled.
There is a limit of 30 athletes in the men's event and 25 in the women's.
In the second run, only the top 20 from the first run can start. They start in reverse order of finishing time in the first run.
There are quotas for each nation taking part based on their World Ranking over the course of the International Competition Season
Athletes use specialist spikes called brush spikes to enable them to run and push their sled at the start to gain the quickest possible time. There are over 300 small spikes in each pair of shoes.
The sport of skeleton utilises sleds with two runners. They are highly individual and customised to the athlete.
The frame must be constructed of steel.
Sleds can be between 80 and 120cm long and 8 to 20 cm high and are the same dimensions for men and women.
In the men’s competition, the maximum weight of sled and driver, including equipment, is 115 kilograms. The sled alone may not weigh more than 33kg. In the women’s event, the weight of sled and driver, including equipment, may not be more than 92kg. The maximum weight of the sled alone is 29 kg.
Olympic skeleton events consist of four runs timed electronically to .01 seconds. The four runs are contested over two days and the winner is determined by the aggregate time of the four runs. If athletes complete the competition in a tie they are awarded the same place.
For the games in 2014 a new system for allocating starting positions was introduced. The top ranked athlete in the world can chose their starting number, followed by the second ranked athlete and continuing until all athletes have selected their number.
The starting order in each run is, 1st race heat: from 1 to the end, 2nd race heat: from 20 to 1 and from 21 to the end, according to the ranking of the first race heat, 3rd race heat: from 1 to the end, according to the ranking after two race heats, 4th race heat: from 20 to 1, according to the ranking after three race heats.
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