2018 Winter Olympics: Skeleton Guide and Preview for PyeongChang
Few Olympic sports pack as much action into such a short period of time as skeleton does. The entire men’s and women’s competitions will play out over the court of four days, wrapping up by the second weekend of the Games.
The competition structure is fairly straightfoward. Each athlete will take three runs down the track and each run counts toward the racer’s cumulative time. The 20 fastest racers after three heats will qualify for the final heat. (For a more detailed primer on the sport, check out our Rookie’s Guide from December.)
The first two heats of the men’s competition will be on Feb. 14 and the last two on Feb. 15. The women’s competition begins on Feb. 16 and wraps up on Feb. 17. (You can see the full schedule here.)
The men’s gold medalist from the 2014 games, Alexander Tretyakov, had his medal vacated as a result of the Russian doping scandal, as did 2014 bronze medalist Elena Nikitina. Both were banned from the 2018 games.
Here are Brian Cazeneuve’s expert medal picks from the Jan. 29–Feb. 5 Olympic Preview issue of Sports Illustrated.
MEN
• Gold: Martins Dukurs, Latvia
• Silver: Yun Sung-bin, South Korea
• Bronze: Axel Jungk, Germany
Eight-time European champ Dukurs is still seeking his first Olympic gold.
WOMEN
• Gold: Jacqueline Lölling, Germany
• Silver: Tina Hermann, Germany
• Bronze: Elisabeth Vathje, Canada
Vathje is engaged to Austrian bobsledder Benjamin Maier.
Check out Brian’s medal predictions for all 102 events in the magazine.
