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The sport of skeleton sled racing isn't well known in the U.S., but it's drawn new attention at this year's Winter Olympics. That's because of controversy. A U.S. sled racer misqualifying and was denied a trip to the games in Italy because of an alleged point rigging scheme. Then a Ukrainian skeleton athlete was disqualified for wearing a helmet honoring his country's war dead. But what is skeleton racing, and could the U.S. win a medal in today's final race? NPR's Brian Mann reports.
BRIAN MANN, BYLINE: I'm standing on a hillside outside the sliding center here in Cortina d'Ampezzo. It's this long snake of white ice curved and banked to accommodate the incredible G-forces that these skeleton racers pull when they rocket down, face-first.
AUSTIN FLORIAN: This sport's about being perfect.
MANN: That's U.S. sledder Austin Florian, who says this brand-new track built in the Italian Alps for these Olympics is one of his favorites in the world.
FLORIAN: And the bottom of the track is just fun. It's fast, flowy, swoopy.
MANN: Last year, when the track was nearing completion, a sports site called Tough Sledding posted a video of what the run is like for a skeleton racer.
(SOUNDBITE OF SLED RUNNING ON ICE)
MANN: Athletes sprint forward using cleated shoes, then throw themselves onto the sleds. They tuck in their arms, looking sort of like human missiles, shooting helmet-first down the ice. Skeleton racers steer with their whole bodies, using tiny adjustments to twist the sled's metal frame. Mystique Ro is one of the U.S.'s veteran skeleton sliders.
MYSTIQUE RO: We're going 80-plus miles an hour. You can't worry about the first two curves when you're in curve eight, so it's really important to be very present.
MANN: Skeleton is named after the sled. It's so stripped down, the metal frame looks sort of like a skeleton. U.S. racer Dan Barefoot says sometimes racers pull such incredible G-forces on the turns it forces their chins down on the ice. Their helmets chatter. Barefoot says he slides by feel.
DAN BAREFOOT: I don't know if it's good for me to say this, but I slide a lot with my eyes closed to really let my body feel what is happening.
MANN: Leading up to these Olympics, Barefoot competed wearing a helmet painted like a hawk. It was damaged in a crash before these games. So while racing here, he's used a plain helmet, but he says the hawk is still his inspiration.
BAREFOOT: One thing that really helped me in having consistent runs was to imagine myself as a bird diving out of the sky.
MANN: Most skeleton races have now been run for these Olympics with no U.S. athletes reaching the podium, but there's one more shot later today - a new race debuting in these Olympics called the mixed team event, where U.S. racers Ro and Florian have looked strong.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Mystique Ro, Austin Florian, I'm just going to say this - world champions.
RO: Yes, this is awesome. Oh, this is so great.
MANN: That's the sound of last year's World Cup Championship in Lake Placid, New York, posted by the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation.
FLORIAN: To go into the Olympics in the first year of it being the defending world champions in it is a pretty cool thing. It's going to be pretty exciting to see what happens.
MANN: Florian and Ro, both 31 years old and competing in their first Olympics, say this team race with a male and female slider plays to their strengths because they're both fast starters, crucial in this relay-style event. Florian has already notched a track start time record in these Olympics, and Ro says her experience as a college track athlete before taking up skeleton taught her how to launch.
RO: It's a reaction start. Like, I'm used to being - going off a block from a gun sound. And so now we have a beep.
MANN: Ro and Florian face strong British and German skeleton teams today, but they say they're dialed in on this track. They know it's challenging twists. They hope those fast starts will give them the fraction-of-a-second advantage they'll need to medal. Brian Mann, NPR News, Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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