Skeleton at the 2022 Winter Olympics

Skeleton at the 2022 Winter Olympics was held at the Xiaohaituo Bobsleigh and Luge Track in China’s Yanqing District between 10 and 12 February 2022. A total of 50 quota spots (25 per gender) were available. Compared with its sliding counterparts, the skeleton programme at the Olympic Winter Games was small with just two titles on offer, but it still managed to finish Beijing 2022 with a bang. Germany, dominant in luge and bobsleigh, won its first Olympic men’s medals in skeleton, and won gold in both the men and women’s events.

It was nations with less history in sliding disciplines, and with fewer resources than Germany, however, that left the deepest impression. Jackie Narracott’s silver medal was Australia’s first Olympic medallist in any sliding sport. She was the first woman from outside Europe and North America to claim a medal in skeleton - the least aerodynamic and slowest of the three sliding sports - and she was hopeful her success would have an impact on the sport back home.

Similarly, Kimberley Bos’s bronze was the first sliding sport medal for the Netherlands, a country better known for its speed skaters. China was another nation to show it may become a force to be reckoned with in future. Despite its first skeleton athletes only being recruited in late 2015, they were no bystanders. Debutant Yan Wengang took bronze in the men’s event, the first Olympic medal in any sliding sport for China.

Great Britain was left to rue a disappointing campaign. For the first time since the sport was re-introduced to the Games in 2002, the team went home empty handed.