Skeleton at the 2002 Winter Olympics

For a long time, the skeleton sport remained mostly confined to its cradle at St. Moritz, and it was featured only twice on the Olympic programme, when the Games visited the Swiss resort in 1928 and 1948. But with the advent of artificially frozen track in the 1960s and the sport was increasingly held on bobsleigh tracks, which was not odd considering the sport was governed by the FIBT, also the governing body for bobsleigh. In 1982, skeleton was added to the FIBT World Championships, with a women’s event debuting in 2000. In 1999, the International Olympic Committee approved the return of skeleton to the Winter Olympics for the 2002 Games. Unlike in 1928 and 1948, the skeletonners competed on the same course as the bobsledders and lugers.