The idea is to hurtle oneself down an icy, mile-long track and subject oneself to the extremities of physics -- speeds of 80 mph, level 5 G forces, hairpin curves. And all the time on a small, lightweight and rather flimsy sled made out of steel or fiberglass.
Oh, there is one choice -- to go either feet first or face first. A pick of one's poison, those who are faint of heart may say.And there you have it -- the obvious difference between the Olympic winter sports of luge and skeleton, considered by many as the two most dangerous of the Games.
But the differences don't stop there. Luge has been an Olympic event for more than three decades and World Cup standard for even longer than that. Skeleton won inclusion in the 2002 Salt Lake Winter Olympics as a "new" sport after cameo competitions in 1928 and 1948 Games, with bona fide major international competition not starting until the mid-1980s.
Although luge and skeleton seem identical except for varying positions of the competitors, the two sports are supervised by separate national governing bodies and international federations. In fact, skeleton aligns itself with bobsled nationally -- hence, the U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton Federation -- while luge goes solo with its U.S. Luge Association.
Skeleton
One pundit likened the sport of skeleton to sliding down the icy neighborhood hill on a wooden sled as a youngster -- except there are no cars whizzing by at the bottom of the slope that you have to dodge. Or, in other words, an Xtreme Flexible Flyer event.
Certainly the prospects of bolting down the icy track -- head first, face down and hands back -- is alluring to a younger generation. But before you cast it off as the latest fashionable fad in winter sports, consider that the sport dates back to the 1880s, joining luge as an offshoot of the toboggan. Some deem skeleton the world's first sliding sport, although luge enthusiasts will beg to differ. But the small toboggans -- ancestors to the modern-day luge and skeleton sled -- were lashed together in the same 1880s era as a precursor to the modern-day bobsled.
The sport is referred to as the skeleton, skeleton cresta or cresta run. Some say the skeleton name comes from a sled that is similar in shape and conformity to a human skeleton. Others say it comes from forming the skeleton of a bobsled, when two smaller sleds were tied together.
Nearly 120 years ago in Switzerland, men and women took to riding sleds in prone position on the icy slopes from the mountain village of St. Moritz to the town of Celerina. And the winner's spoils in the annual skeleton race -- a bottle of champagne.
Because of its hallowed Swiss history, skeleton was contested in the 1928 and 1948 Olympics -- the two times the Games were held in St. Moritz. However, the first-ever Olympic skeleton event was won by an American, Jennison Heaton. In fact, it was a family affair, since brother John took the silver, with the Heaton pair finishing with the fastest times in all three of the heats in 1928.
Ironically, John Heaton repeated as silver medalist 20 years later, as the 39-year-old placed second to Italy's Nino Bibbia. After that, skeleton remained excluded from the Olympics, relegated to standing outside the international fourth-year forum for more than a half-century.
Skeleton faded from public popularity until a resurgence in the sport emerged in the 1970s in Europe. World Cup competition started in 1985, with some two dozen nations participating in World Cup and world championship events today.
Skeleton makes a return to the Olympics in 2002, with men's and women's events having been announced as included events for the Utah Games.
Made of steel or fiberglass, the skeleton sled measures three feet in length and 16 inches in width, and its weight varies from 70 to 115 pounds, depending on the body weight of the slider. On the bottom of the sled, a flat plane displays the competitor's information -- nation, start number and sponsors.
The most important personal equipment worn by the skeleton slider is the helmet. A chin guard helps protect the face, which often is within just 2 inches of the ice during competition. Goggles or a face shield not only protects but helps maintain visibility at speeds of 70-plus mph.
An unofficial but common and inexpensive element of a slider's apparel -- particularly in training -- is duct tape. It's wrapped and strapped around any body part to protect it from skeleton's equivalent to rug burns and floor burns -- the painful sliding scrapes suffered as the skeleton rider whizzes down just inches off the track.
Skin-tight lycralike body suits make the slider more aerodynamic. Sliders also wear shoes with sprinters spikes to aid in their 50-meter run at the start, bending over and pushing the sled on the track before "loading" -- or lunging -- onto the sled.
Steering and negotiating turns are done by dragging one's feet or subtly shifting one's weight or position on the sled.
Despite being a "newcomer" to the 2002 Games, the U.S. Skeleton Team already has experience and history on its side. Jim Shea Jr. is a third-generation national champion who hopes to become a third-generation Olympian. The Lake Placid, N.Y., volunteer firefighter became the first American to win the skeleton world championship; he also holds the track record at the Utah Winter Sports Park with a time of 50.59 seconds.
Utah is represented well on the current national skeleton squad. Park City resident and University of Utah graduate Tricia Stumpf is a first-year member of the women's team who already has made some strong showings in national competition. The former nationally ranked junior alpine ski racer placed second in last year's national championships and won the national push championship. She holds the U.S. push record of 5.27 seconds in the 50-meter starting segment of skeleton racing.
Other Park City residents include Lincoln DeWitt, a former middle-distance runner at the University of Pennsylvania who is in his second year on the men's team; and Babs Isak, an alternate on the women's team.
Luge
What a foreign-looking word "luge" is -- and rightfully so, since it is French for "sled."
But pardon the French. The world should use a German word to describe the sport, since 21 of 30 Olympic gold medals and more than 52 total medals have gone to German athletes since 1964.
Sled racing can be traced back to the 1480s in Norway and the Bavarian Erz Mountain in the mid-1500s. The first international luge race had a corporate sponsor of sorts -- in 1883, hotels in the Swiss resort of Davos conducted an event following the four-kilometer road from St. Wolfgang to Klosters. Twenty-one competitors representing seven nations -- including the United States -- participated in the inaugural race.
Originally supervised through bobsled's international governing body, luge earned its own internal international federation in 1953 and its first world championships in 1955. Luge was adopted as an Olympic sport in 1964 as part of the Innsbruck Games.
The first U.S. Olympic Luge Team was composed of American soldiers stationed in Europe at the time of the Games. Luge finally came home to the United States in time for the 1980 Olympics, as Lake Placid unveiled the nation's only refrigerated luge run in 1979. The Utah Winter Sports Park's Olympic track, which opened in 1997, became the second such refrigerated run in the United States.
Until the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, there had been a select group dominating the sport. All previous 81 luge medals had gone to athletes representing just four countries -- Germany, Austria, Italy and the former Soviet Union. In fact, all but one of the 27 gold medals were collected by German-speaking competitors -- the lone exception being the Soviet Union's Vera Zozulya in the 1980 women's singles.
However, in Nagano, the United States enjoyed a doubles double-delight breakthrough performance. Chris Thorpe and Gordy Sheer won the doubles silver, and Mark Grimmette and Brian Martin added a bronze in the same event as a 34-year American drought ended in the sport. Incidentally, German sliders claimed the three gold medals at the 1998 Games.
The American invasion didn't end in Japan. While the Thorpe-Sheer twosome has been sidelined until last week (Thorpe is attending college in Florida through this month), Grimmette and Martin are the current leaders in the World Cup standings for the 1999-2000 season. Even more dominating is Italy's Armin Zoeggeler, who was undefeated through the first four men's singles events this year.
Luge is the only Olympic winter sport where men and women compete together. Just before the 1994 Winter Games in Lillehammer, Norway, the International Luge Federation allowed men and women to race together as partners.
While there hasn't been a mixed-doubles squad yet in the Olympics or in the U.S. championships, Wendy Arnone and Marshall Morriss -- who train in Park City -- are the first to race together under those rules. Forced to withdraw because of an injury after qualifying for the 1999 nationals, the Arnone and Morriss duo are hoping to compete in next month's U.S. Sliding Championships.
Luge sleds weigh up to 48.4 pounds for singles competitors and no more than 55.1 pounds for the doubles. The twin blades on the sleds must be within 18 inches apart, with the sled guided by one's legs or shoulder movements.
Luge racers begin from a sitting position, with block, compression, pull, extension and push stages coming in fractions of a second in using stationary handles at the starting area. They then "paddle" several times at the top of the track to try and pick up additional speed. Gloves with spikes on the palms allow competitors to grip the ice.
While luge racers are able to get in three or four paddles at the top of most tracks, Turn 1 comes soon at the Utah Winter Sports Park Olympic track, and racers there are happy to get two paddles in before hunkering down for the rest of the glide.
Once moving, racers lie back on the slide to become aerodynamic and eliminate as much air resistance as possible as gravity takes over. Similar to bobsled, luge racers maintain momentum and increase speed by taking a smooth line through the turns and avoiding the sides in straightaways.
Natural--track luge
Now gaining popularity in North America -- and a European staple for centuries -- is natural-track luge, or "naturbahn." It's more like the childhood and schoolyard sledding most would remember, and even the sled looks more like a child's plastic, flexible sled.
Natural-track luge follows the course of nature -- trails, runs and lines along a mountain side. The curves are more flat than traditional luge and require a slider to reach an optimum balance of speed and steering. Speed is controlled -- or decreased -- in natural-track luge as the slider brakes by forcing cleated shoes onto the ice when approaching a curve.
But braking results in lost speed, and so natural-track luge competitors develop several turning techniques used in their sport.
A slider starts a turn by using leg pressure and body weight on one of the sled's runners, with an accompanying lean into the curve and pull of the rein attached to the front to lift the opposite-side runner off the ice. Leaning into the curve may involve the slider extending a hand or arm to help balance or negotiate the curve.
The International Luge Federation is pushing to make natural-track luge an Olympic sport, inviting IOC officials and peers from other winter sport federations to Italy to witness the 2000 World Championships, a biannual event. International competitions include a World Cup circuit.
Also, the U.S. Luge Association sponsors a national natural-track luge team, with competition including national championships and national team and club races.