List of Olympic medalists in skeleton

Skeleton is one of the Olympic sport disciplines contested at the Winter Olympic Games.[1] It was introduced at the 1928 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz – the birthplace of skeleton[2] – in the form of a men's event contested over four runs.[3] Dropped from the 1932 and 1936 Winter Olympics program, skeleton returned in 1948, when St. Moritz hosted again the Winter Olympics, but was discarded from the following Games in Oslo. After 54 years of absence from the Olympic program, skeleton was reinstated as an official medal sport at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, featuring individual events for men and women.[2]

American Jimmy Shea won the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics men's skeleton event, becoming the first Olympic skeleton champion since Nino Bibbia in the 1948 Games.

In 1928, the first Olympic skeleton event was won by American sledder Jennison Heaton, who also won a silver medal in the bobsleigh's five-man event. His younger brother, John Heaton, was runner-up, spending an additional second to complete all three runs (the fourth was cancelled).[3] He repeated this result 20 years later, placing behind Nino Bibbia of Italy, who won his country's first Winter Olympic gold medal.[4]

In 2002, American sledder Jimmy Shea – grandson of Jack Shea, two-time Olympic speed skating champion at the 1932 Lake Placid Games[5] – secured the gold medal by 0.05 seconds, becoming the first Olympic skeleton champion in 54 years. On the same day, another American, Tristan Gale, won the first-ever women's event in the discipline. In the 2006 Winter Olympics men's event, 39-year-old Canadian Duff Gibson beat countryman and world champion Jeff Pain to become the oldest individual gold medalist at the Winter Games.[6] Switzerland's Gregor Stähli won the bronze medal for the second time, beating the third Canadian sledder, Paul Boehm, by 0.26 seconds and thus preventing a medal sweep for Canada.[7] Four years later, Jon Montgomery secured a back-to-back victory for Canada in the men's event, while Amy Williams's win in the women's event gave Great Britain its only medal at the 2010 Winter Olympics, as well as its first individual gold medalist since 1980, and first individual female gold medalist since 1952.[8] This victory was emulated four years later in Sochi by another British athlete, Lizzy Yarnold, who secured her country's second consecutive Olympic skeleton gold medal.[9] The following day, Aleksandr Tretyakov – who had won Russia's first Olympic skeleton medal in Vancouver – beat the 2010 Olympic silver medalist Martins Dukurs of Latvia in the men's event to secure his first Olympic title.[10]

Having won two medals in an equal number of participations, Lizzy Yarnold, John Heaton, Gregor Stähli, Martins Dukurs and Aleksandr Tretyakov are the joint medal leaders in Olympic skeleton, Lizzy Yarnold leading however due to winning two gold medals at two operate games, being the only athlete in the mens and women event to defend their title.[11] As of 2018, Great Britain are the most successful National Olympic Committee (NOC) in Olympic skeleton ranked by number of medals, having won nine medals (three golds, one silver and five bronze) and is the only NOC to have collected a medal every Games that skeleton has featured at the Winter Olympics; they have featured particularly strongly in the women's event, with 3 of the 5 gold medalists, and 6 of the 15 total medalists. The United States comes next with eight medals (three golds, four silver and one bronze). By the alternative measure of number of golds, then silvers, then bronzes, the US is the most successful, with Great Britain in second place.

Men

In 2006, Duff Gibson became the first Olympic skeleton champion from Canada and the oldest individual Winter Olympic gold medalist.
Games Gold Silver Bronze
1928 St. Moritz
Jennison Heaton
 United States
John Heaton
 United States
David Carnegie
 Great Britain
1932–1936not included in the Olympic program
1948 St. Moritz
Nino Bibbia
 Italy
John Heaton
 United States
John Crammond
 Great Britain
1952–1998not included in the Olympic program
2002 Salt Lake City
Jimmy Shea
 United States
Martin Rettl
 Austria
Gregor Stähli
 Switzerland
2006 Turin
Duff Gibson
 Canada
Jeff Pain
 Canada
Gregor Stähli
 Switzerland
2010 Vancouver
Jon Montgomery
 Canada
Martins Dukurs
 Latvia
Aleksandr Tretyakov
 Russia
2014 Sochi
Aleksandr Tretyakov
 Russia
Martins Dukurs
 Latvia
Matthew Antoine
 United States
2018 Pyeongchang
Yun Sung-bin
 South Korea
Nikita Tregubov
 Olympic Athletes from Russia
Dominic Parsons
 Great Britain

Women

Amy Williams was the first British athlete since 1980 to win an individual event at the Winter Olympics, and the first British female athlete to do so since 1952.
Games Gold Silver Bronze
2002 Salt Lake City
Tristan Gale
 United States
Lea Ann Parsley
 United States
Alex Coomber
 Great Britain
2006 Turin
Maya Pedersen
 Switzerland
Shelley Rudman
 Great Britain
Mellisa Hollingsworth-Richards
 Canada
2010 Vancouver
Amy Williams
 Great Britain
Kerstin Szymkowiak
 Germany
Anja Huber
 Germany
2014 Sochi
Lizzy Yarnold
 Great Britain
Noelle Pikus-Pace
 United States
Elena Nikitina
 Russia
2018 Pyeongchang
Lizzy Yarnold
 Great Britain
Jacqueline Lölling
 Germany
Laura Deas
 Great Britain

Statistics

Multiple medalists

Athlete NOC Olympics Gold Silver Bronze Total
Lizzy Yarnold  Great Britain (GBR) 2014–2018 2002
Aleksandr Tretyakov  Russia (RUS) 2010–2014 1012
John Heaton  United States (USA) 1928, 1948 0202
Martins Dukurs  Latvia (LAT) 2010–2014 0202
Gregor Stähli  Switzerland (SUI) 2002–2006 0022

Medals per year

Jon Montgomery (center) celebrates a Canadian back-to-back Olympic title. Martins Dukurs of Latvia (left) and Aleksandr Tretyakov of Russia (right) are their countries' first Olympic medalists in this discipline.
# Number of medals won by the NOC NOC did not win any medals
NOC 1924 28 32–36 48 52–98 02 06 10 14 18 Total
 Austria (AUT)    11
 Canada (CAN)    314
 Germany (GER)    213
 Great Britain (GBR)  1 1 111139
 Italy (ITA)   1 1
 Latvia (LAT)    112
 Olympic Athletes from Russia (OAR)    11
 Russia (RUS)    123
 South Korea (KOR)    11
 Switzerland (SUI)    123
 United States (USA)  2 1 328

See also

References

Medalists
  • "Skeleton". Olympic.org. International Olympic Committee. Retrieved August 20, 2020.
Citations
  1. "Sports". Olympic.org. International Olympic Committee. Retrieved February 28, 2010.
  2. "Skeleton Equipment and History". Olympic.org. International Olympic Committee. Archived from the original on January 13, 2010. Retrieved February 28, 2010.
  3. Kubatko, Justin. "Skeleton at the 1928 Sankt Moritz Winter Games: Men's Skeleton". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on April 17, 2020. Retrieved August 2, 2009.
  4. Kubatko, Justin. "Skeleton at the 1948 Sankt Moritz Winter Games: Men's Skeleton". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on April 17, 2020. Retrieved August 2, 2009.
  5. "Shea Family Legacy". US SHEA.com. Shea Enterprises. Archived from the original on February 17, 2013. Retrieved August 2, 2009.
  6. Kubatko, Justin. "Duff Gibson". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on April 18, 2020. Retrieved March 12, 2010.
  7. Kubatko, Justin. "Skeleton at the 2006 Torino Winter Games: Men's Skeleton". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on April 17, 2020. Retrieved August 2, 2009.
  8. "Amy Williams wins historic gold medal at Winter Olympics". The Bath Chronicle. 20 February 2010. Retrieved February 28, 2010.
  9. Hope, Nick (14 February 2014). "Lizzy Yarnold wins Sochi 2014 gold for Great Britain". BBC Sport. British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Retrieved 15 February 2014.
  10. "Sochi 2014: Alexander Tretiakov wins men's skeleton gold". BBC Sport. British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). 15 February 2014. Retrieved 15 February 2014.
  11. "Lizzy Yarnold Wins Gold 2018". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved February 17, 2018.

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