Skeleton is a Winter Olympic sport that first appeared on the program at the 1928 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz. Participants lie on a small sled face-down and facing forwards, and race down a frozen track at high speeds.
A talent identification program run by the Australian Institute of Sport was successful at targeting beach and track & field sprinters to identify potential athletes for this sport, and putting them on a pathway to success at the international level.
Australia's first representatives in the sport were Michelle Steele and Shaun Boyle at the Torino Games in 2006.
Australia's first medal in skeleton was won by Jaclyn Narracott, a silver in the women's skeleton event at the 2022 Beijing Olympics. It was Australia's first medal in Olympic ice sliding sports (bobsleigh, luge, skeleton). She has followed in her uncle Paul Narracott's steps, who represented Australia in bobsleigh in 1992 after a distinguished career as an Olympic sprinter for Australia.
Related Pages
- Australian sporting teams at the Olympics.
- About the sport of skeleton
- Skeleton at the Winter Olympics
- About Winter Olympic Sports