![]() The first and most readily apparent distinction is the positioning of the riders' bodies on the sleds. Let's now examine the differences between the two. Yan celebrates after winning bronze in the event. In fact, the gold and silver medalists' times in the men's luge singles event at the 2018 Winter Olympics were separated by a microscopic 0.026 seconds in total. Because of the sheer speed involved in these races, run times are recorded to an extremely precise degree, sometimes even down to the thousandths of a second. In this year's Winter Games, the Xiaohaituo Bobsleigh and Luge track in Beijing's Yanqing District is the host venue for each event.īoth sports operate as races, with the riders who cross the finish line in the shortest amount of time declared the winners. Luge and skeleton (as well as bobsleigh) can all take place on the same icy tube-like tracks. Neither type of sled has any steering or braking mechanism, so riders must utilize subtle body shifts and muscle movements to guide the vehicles through the track at the optimal angles to shave precious fractions of a second off their final run times. However, both sleds are flat and low to the ground, allowing for riders to lie atop them and speed through the wintry courses. ![]() Sleds used in the two sports appear to be fairly similar, but there are some differences in specifications. Years later, when St Moritz hosted the Winter Games in 1928 and again in 1948, skeleton was among the events included on the docket. Local residents, wary of this dangerous behavior and after several incidences of collisions with pedestrians, complained, and in response, a track specifically for sledding was built to alleviate the problem and still allow for wintertime fun. Visitors to the town, mainly from England, got their kicks by careening through the frozen streets of the village on makeshift sleds. But what would be off-base is to assume that they are one and the same, because that's far from the truth.īoth sports originated in the bucolic Alpine resort town of St Moritz, Switzerland, in the late 19th century. These two sports seem quite similar at first glance, and that's not an incorrect assessment. Rest assured, it is full of fascinating subplots and stories.īut for today, let's focus on skeleton and luge. Lugers and skeleton racers ride on top of flat, metal and fiberglass sleds that speed smoothly down the track's icy surface, while bobsledders sit inside of a sleigh during their descent.īecause bobsleigh is the only event in this year's Games that is yet to commence, we'll save the tale of that sport for another day soon. These three sports are played on a downhill-sloping ice track with raised walls a tube of ice similar to a frozen waterslide. Others move quickly, like the downhill skiers zipping down the slopes and zigzagging their way to the finish line, or the speed skaters racing around the oval-shaped ice ribbon, bodies nearly horizontal like motorcycle racers riding parallel with the track around the sharp curvesīut I don't believe that any event anywhere in non-motorized sports happens at quite the torrid pace of three other closely related Winter Games events: luge, skeleton and bobsleigh. Some of these events, like curling for example, and also perhaps the cross-country skiing events, are slower in pace. And we've seen the curlers slide their stones toward their targets with delicate precision. We've witnessed the ski jumpers and snowboarders flip and spin every which way through the frigid air. ![]() We've had the privilege of watching the figure skaters leap and pirouette across the ice. ![]() As we near the midpoint of the Beijing Winter Olympics, nearly every event has begun. ![]()
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