Beijing 2022 - Skeleton

Skeleton returned to the Olympic program in 2002, 54 years after its last appearance and 74 after its first. The only reason skeleton made its first two appearances was that both those of those Winter Games were held in St. Moritz, Switzerland, where the thrilling face-first sliding sport was invented back in the 1890s. Skeleton developed there initially as a sport called cresta, from which St. Moritz’s famous natural ice track known as the Cresta Run took its name.

Following those 1948 Winter Games in St. Moritz, skeleton dropped off the program, seemingly for good. But the sport experienced a resurgence in popularity around the world in the late 20th century. Skeleton joined the international governing body for bobsled in 1999 and was formally added back onto the Olympic program, where it has remained ever since.

Team USA won the first gold medal in the sport back in 1928 and won two others across those early Games. Americans then burst out of the gate in the sport’s return in Salt Lake City, winning three of the six medals and both golds. Team USA has only visited the podium in one Games since, winning two medals in 2014, but remains second with eight total medals behind Great Britain’s nine. The two countries are tied for the lead with three gold medals each.

Skeleton medals are awarded for both men’s and women’s singles. The 2022 Games will see the most women ever competing as 12 men’s spots were moved to the women’s side to make an equal 25 athletes in each event. Athletes get four runs over two days to record the lowest total time.

The sliding sports — including skeleton as well as bobsled and luge — will be contested at the Yanqing National Sliding Centre, notable for being the first track in the world to include a 360-degree turn. The track is part of the Yanqing cluster of venues located in the mountains 45 miles northwest of Beijing.

Updated on January 28, 2022.