Skeleton at the Winter Olympics
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.
SkeletonSkeleton was first on the program at the 1928 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, and again in 1948 Winter Olympics. After a long hiatus, it was reintroduced at the 2002 Winter Olympics with both men's and women's events.
Skeleton is a head-first version of the luge, and is run on the same track (as is bobsled). Amazingly, the skeleton sled has no steering or braking mechanism, the participants steer by movements of the body and travel at speeds up to 130 km/hr (80 mph).
2026 Skeleton Events
- men's individual skeleton
- women's individual skeleton
- mixed team skeleton (added in 2026)
Trivia (History)
- American Jennison Heaton won the first Olympic skeleton gold medal at St Moritz in 1928, beating his brother John, who took the silver.
- 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, this time with both men and women competitions.
- Athletes from Great Britain have won a medal every time skeleton has featured at the Olympic Games (up to and including 2014)
- Russian Aleksandr Tretyakov originally won gold in the 2014 Skeleton, but due to problems with his urine sample, was banned in 2017 and stripped of his medal.
Related Pages
- Videos of Skeleton
- About the luge and bobseld events at the Winter Olympics
- More about the sport of skeleton
- More Winter Olympics Sports
- Winter Olympics main page.
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