Skeleton in the Winter Olympics

[likelysuspect]

Gordon Bennett!!

Are they mad?

Its making me anxious watching them.

Im not sure Ive seen this before, not sure how Ive missed it

Down the park with a broken go kart I think. Mum pushes them off at the start.

It’s amazing! But fuck no I’m never trying it. My stomach is flipping as they go round the bends on their little tea tray!! Mental!

I’m sure I saw something years ago showing where they trained doing the getting on the tea tray thing with no ice in sight

I've always fancied I'd be rather good at it....

I'm loving the women's snowboarding too.

Yes, its giving me indigestion!!

It appears they train in that well known mountainous area, Bath university 😀

My friend does it- at university level there’s like ‘training camps’ where they take people good at sport and see if they’d be good at other random sports and that’s how she got into it. If you watch their uk training they don’t train on ice!

Apparently there’s an ice-free track at the University of Bath that allows them to practise their starts, but they otherwise have to go abroad! www.teamgb.com/article/explained-skeleton/1EqVZTspZl7sEEJtVJBvsD

I think it’s at university of Bath.

I’m also amazed by how bloody close it is, I don’t get how you can actually differentiate between 0.01 of a second, it’s so incredibly close!

There was an awful crash in the women’s snowboarding half pipe thing yesterday, the first aiders had to ski down to help her and everything. Then she went on to do it again and win! They’re all absolute maniacs, hats off to them.

There is actually a lot of skill involved in steering the tea tray down the track without crashing and finding the fastest line. It might look like they are just passively sliding but they are working hard!

Use your local 25% gradient hill after snow, rain and more snow. You won't reach the speeds they do, but you'll have some idea of what it's like to have your life flash before your eyes before knocking yourself out (and more likely live).

I was told once that this sort of milarky is encouraged by the Army. Clearly, the prospects of getting oneself shot or exploded on a Friday teatime isn't exciting enough for them, so they tend to encourage recruits to find alternative ways to self destruct during peacetime.

Curling is bad enough - I absolutely know I would be tripping over the stones.

Yeet down headfirst on an ice track on a tea tray , of course they're mad. We do well at it though, mad dogs and English men.
Did you not see Lizzie Yarnold do it?

I've fallen down the slope of the grass amphitheatre whilst drunk there, never mind tried to walk back up towards the shop or navigate the hill the university sits on the top of. It's definitely risky terrain, especially with the pools full of giant Gunnera waiting to shred the intrepid student if they make it up the amphitheatre and head towards the dining hall instead.

There’s only ONE place in the UK where you can learn this particular sport. Not very inclusive!

I watched that yesterday it was utter carnage couldn’t believe it when she went again & won the gold.

I love the subtle movements of their feet to steer high or low on the sides guessing that higher gives you more momentum. I noticed how young everyone is but competitors and audiences . Must be wild social side in the evening. Saw that the Olympic Village ran out of condoms after three days .
Guess it must be easier for British team to find a place to train than the Jamaican bobsled team.

One of the past gold medalists in this was the year above me at school. She was v athletic and a good all rounder at sports. Like a pp said the competitors are often poached from athletics due to sprint starts. And posters saying it’s not a sport, bore off! Would like to see you do it 🙄

@FordExplorer I can’t imagine there are thousands queuing up to learn

What's the difference between luge and skeleton?

Skeleton face down, luge face up

One is one way up and the other is the other way up

Im well versed in this now

Do they have any protective clothing? On one of the ski events it mentioned them wearing an airbag.