Skeleton

Skeleton is a sledding sport founded on the famed Cresta Run, at St. Moritz, Switzerland. In skeleton, the sliders lie prone on their sleds, face-down. As there was initially only one skeleton track in the world, the sport could only be held when the Olympic Winter Games were held in St. Moritz, in 1928 and 1948. After its second appearance, it was replaced with luge, but the sport made a comeback in 2002 at Salt Lake City, with events for both men and women, and has been on the Olympic Programme ever since.

Lizzy Yarnold (GBR) won gold medals in 2014 and 2018, and, through 2022, is still the only skeleton slider with two gold medals. Yarnold, Aleksandr Tretyakov, Martins Dukurs, Jack Heaton, and Gregor Stähli are the only Olympians with two skeleton medals.

As of 2022, Great Britain and the USA lead the gold medal count in this discipline, with three each. Britain also leads the overall medal count with nine.

Skeleton is governed by the International Bobsleigh & Skeleton Federation (IBSF), which was founded as Fédération Internationale de Bobsleigh et de Tobogganing (FIBT) on 23 November 1923, in Paris, and renamed in 2015. As of 2024, IBSF has 74 national federations as members.