Skeleton (sport)

Skeleton was practiced mainly in Switzerland; however, in 1905, Styria held its first skeleton competition in Mürzzuschlag, Austria. This opened the door to other national skeleton competitions including the Austrian championship held the following year. In 1908 and 1910, skeleton competitions were held in the Semmering Pass.[4] As the popularity of the sport grew, skeleton evolved into the sport recognized today. In 1892, the sled was transformed by L. P. Child, an Englishman. The newly designed bare-bones sled resembled a human skeleton, and the sport adopted its modern name of skeleton, though it is still recognized as tobogganing in many countries.[4]

In 1923, the Federation Internationale de Bobsleigh et de Tobogganing (FIBT) was established as the governing body of the sport. Soon afterward, in 1926, the International Olympic Committee declared bobsleigh and skeleton as Olympic sports and adopted the rules of the St. Moritz run as the officially recognized Olympic rules.[4] It was not until 2002, however, that skeleton returned to the Olympic Winter Games after a 54-year absence, with the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah. In 2015, the FIBT was renamed the International Bobsleigh & Skeleton Federation (IBSF), and the Congress of the IBSF adopted its current governing statutes in 2016.[7]

Popularity in the sport has grown since the 2002 Winter Olympics and now includes participation by some countries that do not have or cannot have a track because of climate, terrain or monetary limitations. Athletes from such countries as Australia, New Zealand, Bermuda, South Africa, Argentina, Iraq, Israel, Mexico, Brazil, and even the Virgin Islands have become involved with the sport in recent years. The IBSF operates a support program for "emerging nations", which provides travel, coaching, and equipment funding assistance to countries which have neither a track nor three qualified pilots in three IBSF disciplines; in 2017, 20 national federations qualified for financial support in men's skeleton, and 11 qualified in women's skeleton.[8]

The two Continental Cup series are the Europe Cup (also called "Europa Cup" and "European Cup") and the North American Cup. Both series are open to athletes from all participating nations, but with some restrictions: the top 15 athletes in combined ranking are not permitted to race in the Continental Cups, and athletes are not permitted to race unless their team has filled all of its assigned quota sports in the World Cup. In addition, teams are limited to four athletes on their home continent and two athletes on the other continent. (For the purposes of this restriction, African teams are considered to be home on the Europe Cup and Asian, Oceanian, and South American teams are home on the North American Cup.)[9]

As the bottom level of international skeleton competition, race results in the Continental Cups are assigned the lowest point values for ranking, with a first-place finish being with 75 points (compared to 120 points for the Intercontinental Cup and 225 points for the World Cup). Only the top 30 athletes receive ranking points; 30th place is worth 1 point.[9] However, two races are generally held in each discipline on a single race weekend, allowing consistently competitive athletes to earn a higher ranking than if they went to a single World Cup race and finished poorly.

The Intercontinental Cup (ICC) was introduced as an intermediate level between the Continental Cups and the World Cup; a first-place finish is worth 120 points in the IBSF ranking (vs. 225 points for a World Cup win). Teams with three athletes in the top 60 (top 45 for women) of the IBSF overall ranking for the previous year may send three athletes (not necessarily the same ones) to each ICC race; teams with two athletes in the top 75 (top 60 for women) may send two; and all other teams may send one athlete each. In order to be eligible to race in the ICC, athletes must have received a ranking in at least five IBSF competitions at three different tracks in the previous two years.[9]

The World Cup is the top level of international skeleton competition, and has the most stringent team quotas, with no teams receiving an automatic entry. To qualify, a team must have placed at least one athlete in the top 60 of the overall ranking table (top 45 for women); teams with two athletes in the top 50 (top 35 for women) receive two quota spots, and teams with three athletes in the top 30 (top 25 for women) receive three. The same athlete experience requirements as apply to the ICC also apply to the World Cup.[9] At the end of the World Cup season, the man and woman with the highest ranking, considering only points earned in World Cup races, are given a trophy known as the "Crystal Globe".

One World Cup race a year may be designated as a continental championship for the continent on which it is held. This championship is a "paper" race, based only on the times in the regularly scheduled World Cup event, with the athletes representing a different continent excluded. Currently, this is done only in Europe; the 2017/18 European Championship races were the World Cup races held on 15 December 2017 at Innsbruck, Austria. The current European champions are Martins Dukurs of Latvia[10] and Elena Nikitina of Russia.[11]

In non-Olympic years, a national federation volunteers to organize the (Senior) World Championships (for both bobsleigh and skeleton), which are open to all athletes meeting the experience requirements that apply to the World Cup and the ICC (including junior athletes). The quota system for the Senior World Championships is the same as for the World Cup, except that all national federations are entitled to send one athlete. The defending Junior World Champion in each discipline also receives an automatic entry. Unlike all other IBSF-sponsored races, the World Championships use a two-day, four-heat format, with rankings determined by total time for all four heats.[9]

The 2016/17 World Championships were held at Königssee bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton track in Bavaria, 24–26 February 2017. Martins Dukurs of Latvia won the men's competition[12] and Jacqueline Lölling of Germany won the women's competition.[13] Because 2018 was an Olympic year, no World Championships were held for the 2017/18 season.

The Junior World Championships are held every year, but are scheduled to avoid conflict with the Olympics and the Senior World Championships. Junior athletes are those who are under 23 years of age, or who turn 23 at some point during the competitive season. All countries are entitled to send up to three athletes to the Junior World Championships, subject to the requirement that each entrant must have finished at least three IBSF sanctioned competitions on at least two tracks in the previous two years.[9]

The 2017–18 Junior World Championships were held on 25 January 2018 in St. Moritz, Switzerland, and the winners were Anna Fernstädt of Germany and Nikita Tregubov of Russia.[14]

The skeleton event in the Winter Olympics uses the same two-day, four-heat format as the World Championships, but team quotas are significantly smaller. The International Olympic Committee assigns athlete quotas to national Olympic committees in cooperation with the IBSF and using the IBSF ranking system to determine qualification; 20 women and 30 men competed at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, Korea, with one automatic quota going to the host country (Korea) for each gender. For men, three countries received three quota spots each, six were allocated two spots, and five got one; for women, two countries received three spots, four got two, and two got one. The ranking of the countries for quota assignment was based on their third-highest, second-highest, or highest ranked athlete in total IBSF ranking over the qualification period. In addition, three quota spots are reserved for countries whose continent did not receive any representation based on this assignment procedure.

National Olympic Committees may send athletes other than the ones whose rankings earned the quota spot, but the athletes chosen must be ranked in the top 60 (for men) or top 45 (for women) on the IBSF list and meet similar experience requirements to those that apply to the World Cup.[15] However, IBSF rule 4.1 provides that, for the purposes of determining the top 60 (or top 45) qualification, lower-ranking athletes from countries which have already received a full quota are "cleaned" from the list before an athlete's ordinal ranking is determined[9] This had the effect of allowing continental representatives for Africa into the 2018 games, as they would otherwise have been too low on the ranking list to qualify (notably, Nigerian slider Simidele Adeagbo was ranked 74th before cleaning,[16] but was in the top 45 after application of rule 4.1).

“The ‘toboggans’ used in Alpine countries at the end of the 19th century were inspired by Canadian/Indian sleds used for transport”.[4] Various additions and redesigning efforts by athletes have led to the skeleton sleds used today. In 1892, L. P. Child introduced the “America”, a new metal sled that revolutionized skeleton as a sport. The stripped-down design provided a compact sled with metal runners, and the design caught on quickly. In 1902, Arden Bott added a sliding seat to help athletes shift their weight forward and backward, a feature that is no longer included on modern sleds.

In 2010, the FIBT restricted the materials with which skeleton sleds are permitted to be made. Sled frames must be made of steel and may not include steering or braking mechanisms. The base plate, however, may be made of plastics. The handles and bumpers found along the sides of the sled help secure the athlete during a run.[18]

Further specifications are included in the FIBT ruling regarding sled dimensions:[4][18]

Some athletes opt to attach ballasts if the combined weight of athlete and sled falls below the maximum combined weight. These ballasts may only be added to the sled, not the rider.

• Dimensions:
  • Length: 80–120 cm (31.5–47.2 in)
  • Height: 8–20 cm (3.1–7.9 in)
  • Distance between runners: 340–380 mm (13.4–15.0 in)

• alpine racing helmet with chin guard, or a skeleton-specific helmet
• skin-tight racing speedsuit made of uncoated textile material
• spiked shoes, similar to track spikes
• goggles or face shields
• optional elbow and shoulder pads under their suits
• sled

Current Olympic champion:  South Korea (KOR) Yun Sung-bin  Olympic Athletes from Russia (OAR) Nikita Tregubov  Great Britain (GBR) Dominic Parsons

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States	2	2	1	5
2	Canada	2	1	0	3
3	Russia	1	0	1	2
4	Italy	1	0	0	1
	South Korea	1	0	0	1
6	Latvia	0	2	0	2
7	Austria	0	1	0	1
	Olympic Athletes from Russia	0	1	0	1
9	Great Britain	0	0	3	3
10	Switzerland	0	0	2	2
Totals (10 nations)		7	7	7	21

Current Olympic champion:  Great Britain (GBR) Lizzy Yarnold  Germany (GER) Jacqueline Lölling  Great Britain (GBR) Laura Deas

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Great Britain	3	1	2	6
2	United States	1	2	0	3
3	Switzerland	1	0	0	1
4	Germany	0	2	1	3
5	Canada	0	0	1	1
	Russia	0	0	1	1
Totals (6 nations)		5	5	5	15