By REBECCA NEYENHUIS
Sliding down an icy track headfirst, at times defying physics, Jim Shea and 14 other men and women skeletoners are training this month at the Utah Winter Sports Park in Park City, Utah.
The group is training most immediately for a world series tour that will take them all over the world starting in November, but the ultimate goal for many is the 2002 Games.
The men’s and women’s skeleton was added to the 2002 Winter Games at an Interational Olympic Committee meeting in Athens, Greece, on Oct. 2, with six other new events. While new in recent winter games, skeletoning has been in two previous Olympic games, and has been around since the 1800s, Shea said.
“In the United States, no one knows what skeleton is. In Germany, 300,000 people watched the Mike Tyson fight, but 2.1 million watched the skeleton,” Shea said.
Shea said he hopes the skeleton will pick up popularity in the U.S. with the 2002 Games.
The skeleton takes place on the bobsled track. Sliders go down on a sled with a metal frame and fiberglass shell. The sled is designed to be flexible, allowing the slider to steer by pressing with the knees and shoulders, twisting the sled in the right direction. Head coach of the U.S. Skeleton Team Peter Vaiciulis emphasised that skeleton sleds offer no exterior protection and no breaks, which adds to the intesity of the sport. Shea said skeletoning is an extreme sport, but it is safe.
“It is a sport of percise timing and being able to drive gracefully,” Shea said.
Shea said skeletoning is more accessible to athletes than sports like bobsleding because of equiptment costs. He said good skeleton sleds cost between $1,000 and $3,000, whereas a bobsled can run $15,000 and up.
Besides skill, Peter Vaiciulis, head coach of the U.S. Skeleton Team, said being a skeletoner takes a certain personality.
“You have to be an adrenialine junkie for one. You just have to love the thrill because even the guys that have been doing it for years still get that rush,” Vaiciulis said.
Shea is currently the world champion in skeletoning. He plans to defend his title and go for the gold. Shea comes from a family of Olympians. His grandfather competed in the 1932 Olympics in Lake Placid, New York, where he won two gold medals. Shea’s father competed in the nordic combined event in the 1964 Games in Insprock, Austria.
Shea lives and trains in Lake Placid, New York, home of the U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton Federation. He started as a bobsled driver on two- and four-man teams but grew bored with it. He tried skeletoning four years ago and knew it was the sport for him.
Shea has been U.S. National Champion three times, the first American to place in the top five in the World Cup, the first American to win the World Cup, and the first American to win the World Championships. He is an Olympic favorite for the gold.
“It is a sport of minimizing your mistakes. The man with the least amount of mistakes going down the hill will win the race,” Shea said.
Shea said having the Olympics in the United States will give him a home-court advantage. He will continue to train on and off at the Park City track to become familiar with it. Shea said with home-court advantage there is a lot of pressure, especially with media coverage.
Vaiciulis said following the games he expects skeletoning to gain popularity in the United States. He said after the Olympics there will be more clubs involved in the sport.
