Bone-rattling Skeleton racing and other delights of the soul

February 2, 2018 5:45 PM

Why Skeleton Racing Is So Brutal on the Body. "Corners are where skeleton racing is the most physically brutal. A tight turn can produce G-forces, or “pressures,” of up to five times normal. (For perspective, consider that astronauts lifting off on a rocket experience only about three G-forces.) “We compare it to a contact sport,” says Matt Antoine, a member of this year’s U.S. Olympic skeleton team. Part of the challenge is how quickly the pressures hit: In a few milliseconds, your head suddenly feels as heavy as a bowling ball, and keeping it upright — and away from the ice — is a struggle."

This is part of an NYT series giving an inside look at Winter Olympic sports. Along the same vein in the series:
The Workout That Saves [World Cup ski racer] Lindsey Vonn From Wipeouts.
The Search for Stillness at the Heart of Biathlon.

And finally a wonderfully written piece by Sam Anderson: What Cross-Country Skiing Reveals About the Human Condition.

"Instead of offering us distraction — the glittery melodrama of figure skating or the quirky novelty of curling — cross-country skiers lean right into a bleak truth: We are stranded on a planet that is largely indifferent to us, a world that sets mountains in our path and drops iceballs from 50,000 feet and tortures our skin with hostile air. There is no escaping it; the only noble choice is to strap on a helmet and slog right in. Cross-country skiing expresses something deep about the human condition: the absolute, nonnegotiable necessity of the grind. The purity and sanctity of the goddamn slog."

posted by storybored (11 comments total)

I didn't know what skeleton racing was before this post, so while I was reading this I was visualizing medical students racing through the halls of their anatomy department with model skeletons on wheels.

I gotta say, I'm let down by what it actually is.
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 6:02 PM on February 2, 2018 [23 favorites]

I got to try skeleton racing once; the bobsled/luge track built here for the Olympics back in 88 had a period of time where groups could go and try things like it.

I did two runs - one from the "juniour" starting position on the track and one from the women's start. It is a punishing run; what I remember most is how hard I had to fight to keep my torso down on the sled; the wind gets under your head and shoulders - which you have to angle up slightly to see where you are going - and tries to lift you off the sled. So you spend a lot of effort trying to stay on the sled, and that's before you have to try to steer and find a good line on the track - which, if you can do so, increases your speed and the wind resistance you have to struggle against. It was exhausting and I was no where near the speeds that actual athletes achieve.

I have a lot of respect for the skill and strength of the people who do it. I also think they are a little nuts.
posted by nubs at 7:21 PM on February 2, 2018 [1 favorite]

In a few milliseconds, your head suddenly feels as heavy as a bowling ball,

It is a vivid simile, but FWIW a modest bit of googling suggests the difference in mass between a human head and a bowling ball is not all that much. Bowling balls seem to have an absolute upper limit of sixteen pounds (no lower limit) while heads typically weigh somewhere in the ten-to-twelve-pound range. Just sayin’.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:07 PM on February 2, 2018 [2 favorites]

Maybe they should have said curling stone instead of bowling ball.
posted by TedW at 8:23 PM on February 2, 2018 [5 favorites]

Or maybe they said the right thing and the F=ma equation tied into Statics cum Dynamics calculations would show that heat to bowling ball in miliseconds is actually kinda hellish? Serious, not snarky statement.

I dunno, too late to do those maths and I've already spent the evening on Facebook arguing with Trump supporting family members so wtf am I even going on about.
posted by RolandOfEld at 8:40 PM on February 2, 2018 [2 favorites]

Now I've got the Skeleton Rag stuck in my head.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:02 PM on February 2, 2018

So I've been watching Pop Team Epic and one of the episodes opens with a skeleton race, and I thought it was just some absurdist joke. So to find out it's real is kinda weird, haha.
posted by Rev. Syung Myung Me at 10:11 PM on February 2, 2018

I recall a post-competition photo from a luger, and let's just say it's not a good sport if you bruise easily. At all. Skeleton is just double the insanity.
posted by lmfsilva at 7:45 AM on February 3, 2018

I too was initially disappointed that actual skeletons (or something passably skeletal) weren't involved, but then I read this:

“There are even times when I just use my eyes,” Tannenbaum notes — that tiny movement can alter her posture enough to steer. “Where you look, you go,” she says.

😲
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:27 AM on February 3, 2018

Some comedian observed that luge (and by extension, skeleton) is the only Olympic sport where you cannot tell if the athletes are doing it voluntarily.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 3:06 PM on February 3, 2018 [4 favorites]

I thought exercises done lying down were the easiest. Now my mind has been opened.
posted by RoboticForest at 3:42 AM on February 4, 2018