Hang on to your skeleton |
|
Roland White tries the only Winter | | [id:57161] the crowd, sometimes even |
Olympic sport in which Britain has a | | injuring spectators. “The courses are |
chance of gold | | much better now,” said Kirk, 21, an |
IT IS a sport so dangerous that for | | amateur sprinter. |
more than 50 years it was banned from | | “Of course, safety is relative. The |
the Olympics. Competitors race at up | | main worry is the chin. If you take a |
to 90mph with their faces barely an | | bend wrong your chin can hit the ice. |
inch from the ground. Even the name | | I once ended up with severe |
is chilling — skeleton. And last week | | concussion.” |
I made my racing debut. | | And there’s more. Let’s not forget |
Skeleton is back at the Olympics | | those terrible hand injuries. “If you’re |
for the first time in 54 years. It is | | not careful you can crack your hands |
Britain’s best hope of a gold medal. If | | on the ice and break your meta- |
Alexandra Coomber or Kristan Bromley | | carpals²),” |
[id:57158], it will be all the more impressive | | said Kirk. |
since there is not even a full-size | | The good news is, however, that |
bobsleigh run in this country. The | | skeleton doesn’t take too long to learn. |
closest we can manage is a newly | | Alex Coomber, the current world |
opened mini-run at the University of | | champion, took it up during a trip to |
Bath, which I found myself peering | | Austria in 1997. Ten days after her first |
down recently. What I could see was a | | run, she finished fifth in a World Cup |
track that dipped away sharply, then | | event. It’s not yet a popular sport, you |
disappeared. In the middle distance | | see. For some reason people don’t |
I could just make out where I would | | seem all that keen to take part. |
eventually be stopping. If all went well, | | Coomber, though, [id:57163] fears |
that is. | | about safety. Before leaving for Salt |
I was supposed to throw myself flat | | Lake City she insisted: “You can’t |
after a sprinting start onto what was | | come off the track, you can’t be |
little more than a tea tray with ideas | | trapped like you can under a |
above its station. In proper skeleton it | | bobsleigh¹), and you’ve only got 4cm or |
would at least be an expensive tea tray | | so to fall. You’re more likely to get |
weighing about 90lb and worth about | | injured in rugby.” |
£2,000. For practice, [id:57159] , we make | | So with those reassuring words |
do with a couple of bits of plywood | | ringing in my ears, plus a couple of |
wrapped in masking tape and attached | | short runs just to get the feel of my |
to a smallish trolley running on trails to | | tray, it’s time to have a go. |
simulate conditions on the ice. | | Have you ever tried to fling |
“You’ll be fine,” says my coach | | yourself on top of a moving tea-tray? |
Greg Kirk, a sports student at Bath. | | It’s a lot more difficult than it looks. My |
“Just remember to hang on tight. | | coach is trackside shouting, reminding |
Really tight. As tight as you can.” As | | me of the three rules of skeleton on |
words of reassurance go, these were | | this practice track: “Keep your head |
not very [id:57160] . | | up. Keep your legs up. Hold on tight.” |
| | There is no need to remind me to |
| hold on tight. By now I am |
| hurtling face-first down the track at |
| what feels like 50mph but is probably |
| 30mph at the very most and the end of |
| the track is rocketing towards me. You |
| just about have time to think something |
| along the lines of “Oh! Wow! Hey! This |
| is great!” before you realise that the |
| bungee rope — which acts as a brake |
| — is approaching. The tone then |
| changes to something more like |
| “Oowaah-oef” because you hit the |
| bungee rope at high speed and are |
| immediately [id:57165] . |
| Real skeleton riders will tackle a |
Skeleton is one of the oldest of | | 15-bend course that resembles a tube |
winter sports. It started in 1884. In | | of ice and finish in just more than |
1892 the wooden toboggans1) were | | 50sec. Hundredths of a second matter |
replaced by a metal version, which | | in this sport. |
some joker thought looked like a | | Kirk has already won a novices’ |
skeleton. | | championship in Germany. If he can |
As an Olympic sport, it was initially | | find a sponsor, he hopes to be able to |
spectacular and not entirely safe. The | | race at the next two Olympics. That’s if |
design of the courses meant | | his metacarpals hold out. |
competitors would occasionally be | | |
|
noot 1: a toboggan (regel 46), a bobsleigh (regel 82): different kinds of sleighs |
noot 2: metacarpals: bones on the back of your hand |