Skeleton - a sport consisting in the descent of an athlete lying on his stomach on a double-sleigh sled along the ice gutter. The prototype of a modern sports equipment is the Norwegian fishing ake. The winner is the one who passes the distance in the shortest possible time.
A bit of history
The first information about sled competitions dates back to the beginning of the nineteenth century, when in the Swiss Alps British tourists made attempts to go down the sleigh along the snowy mountain slopes. In 1883, at the Swiss ski resort that every businessman knows today, the first international competitions were organized, reminiscent of the sport known today - skeleton. Pictures from newspapers of that era show that nineteenth-century sleds were very different from modern ones. A few years later, an Englishman by the name of Child greatly surprised his colleagues with a new design of a sports equipment. He made it from strips of metal having a width of about twenty-two millimeters.
It was then that the name "skeleton" appeared, which from Greek translates as "frame", "skeleton". The name has taken root well. The skeleton, without steering, is equipped with a weighted frame with a length of 70 and a width of 38 centimeters and mounted on steel skids. The athlete, lying down face down, controls his descent with the help of special spikes made on the toes of the boots.
First competition
Skeleton is a very interesting, but at the same time not very common kind of sport. The history of its occurrence and development is short. In 1905, for the first time, a sleigh downhill competition was organized outside of Switzerland - in the Austrian mountains of Styria. The following year, the first national skeleton championship was also held there. Seven years later, at the beginning of 1912, a joint club of two sports was created in Germany: hockey and skeleton, and a year later, open tournaments were started in the same country. In Russia, a winter sport - skeleton - gradually began to spread in the Kaliningrad region. However, the outbreak of the First World War for a long time slowed down its development in European states. And only in 1921, near St. Moritz, it was possible to hold an open sleigh descent championship.
Some features
Skeleton is a rather dangerous sport. During the descent, the sled accelerates to high speeds. Compared to bobsleigh, skeleton has more stringent requirements. The main condition is that the weight of the athlete along with the sleigh for men should not exceed 115, and for women - 92 kilograms. In some cases, the rules allow weighting the sled with ballast.
According to the rules established more than a century ago, the tracks for competitions in a sport such as skeleton must be adjusted to the required standards. The first quarter of a kilometer of the way, the track should have such a structure that can provide the luge with acceleration to one hundred kilometers per hour. The last one hundred or one hundred and fifty meters of the distance should have a slope of up to twelve degrees. This is done so that, after finishing, the athlete can calmly stop. In addition, on all international toboggan runs where skeleton competitions take place, the height difference from the starting line to the finish point should be one hundred and more meters. For comparison, one can imagine that an athlete descends on small sledges, lying on his stomach forward with his head, at great speed from a height of a 33-story building.
Key Points
The International Olympic Rules for Skeleton contain several basic provisions. Firstly, for competitions in this sport, the use of a bobsleigh toboggan track with a minimum length of 1200 meters and a maximum of 1650 meters is required. At the very beginning of the race, the skeleton runner accelerates (acceleration length is 25-40 meters), and then belly down and head first lies quickly on the sled and practically flies along the track. The athlete must lie in a predetermined position, arms extended along the body.
Skeleton debut at the Olympics
Everyone knows that skeleton is an Olympic sport. And he made his debut at the Winter Games in the same St. Moritz already in 1928. The first gold medal was then won by the representative of the United States, Jennison Heaton. Twenty years later, in the same city in 1948, the skeleton was again declared in the competition program. Since 1969, the race began to be held in several stages, scattered over a five-month period, since in this case the final result depended minimally on climatic conditions.
Skeleton today
The most important step in the history of this sport was its entry into the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation. In 1982, the first World Skeleton Championship was held in St. Moritz. Ten athletes from seven European states took part in it. Skeleton is a sport that is developing now in many countries of the world, including Russia. It is practiced on four continents. At the end of the last century, the International Skeleton School organized training not only for athletes, but also for trainers in various countries. Even special programs have been developed.
Skeleton federation
Along with the World Cup competitions, the International Federation annually holds stages of a tournament called the Tyrolean Cup, where young and still inexperienced athletes can try their hand. Skeleton is a sport in which Americans are especially good. So, in 2002, at the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, the pedestal was completely captured by the hosts, representatives of the United States took all the prizes.
The sled downhill competition is currently being organized and supervised by the International Luge Federation. Skeleton is a sport that is popular today around the world. They are even involved in such hot countries as South Africa, Australia and Mexico. In Russia, it received active distribution only a few years ago. However, already in 2001, domestic athletes were able to demonstrate striking results at major international tournaments.
Skeleton in our country
In 2002, Ekaterina Mironova, the favorite of the women's skeleton team, took seventh place at the Salt Lake City Games. And next year at the World Championships in this sport, she, having won a silver medal, set a new track record for dispersal. Russian athletes had no skeleton medals before. In 2008, the Russian Alexander Tretyakov at the World Cup tournament in Igles also managed to set a track record and win a silver medal. In 2009, he also took first place in the World Cup. At the Sochi Olympics this year, Tretyakov won the gold medal, becoming the first Olympic champion in the skeleton, who happened to win, being in the rank of the reigning world champion. Russian athletes do not really pamper their fans with victories, but the current Olympians have already brought two Olympic awards to our country. The second medal for the country - bronze - was won by women by Elena Nikitina. I would hope that the skeleton returned for a long time and seriously. Now, when toboggan runs are being built in all the Olympic capitals, there is confidence that this sport will no longer disappear!