Beijing 2022 event guide: Skeleton
Flying head first down a narrow ice track at speeds of over 100km/h (about 62mph) might not be everyone's idea of a good day out but it's certainly fun to watch.
Skeleton has been a fan favorite at the Winter Olympics since it first appeared in competition but it's had a love hate relationship with the Games ever since.
After British and American holiday goers constructed the first toboggan run in 1882 in Davos, Switzerland, a new steel sledge was built ten years later — which became known as the skeleton.
It fell in and out of the Olympic program for a number of years, before it was reintroduced at the Salt Lake City 2002 Winter Olympics.
In Beijing, there will be six gold medals across the discipline with athletes participating on the same track across two days, getting four runs each, which are then added together.
The competitor who gets to the bottom of the track in the quickest cumulative time wins the event.
Great Britain and the United States are two of the powerhouses in the sport but, given the nature of the event, anything can happen on the day.
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