Bone-rattling sport gets Olympic revival

Stähli sped to third place in last year's Olympic trials Keystone Archive

Switzerland's Gregor Stähli is among the favourites for gold medal glory in Salt Lake City following the resurrection of skeleton as a Winter Olympic event.

The sport sees competitors reach speeds of up to 130 kilometres an hour while sliding headfirst down a bobsleigh track on small steel-framed sleds. Although the ride is guaranteed to rattle a few bones along the way, it is actually the bare-ribbed appearance of the sled that gives skeleton its name.

Already this season’s overall World Cup winner, after winning four of the tour’s five races, Stähli is in a strong position to challenge for the Olympic gold. Should the 33-year-old father of three achieve his Olympic dream, he will certainly be a fitting winner in a sport whose origins are thoroughly Swiss.

Skeleton was born in St Moritz during the late 1880s when riders on the resort’s legendary Cresta Run began experimenting with metal sleds that they rode headfirst down the Run’s treacherous route.

When the Winter Olympics came to St Moritz in 1928 and 1948, skeleton races were included in the programme, heralding the sport’s only Olympic appearances – until now.

Feeling the attention

“Skeleton is certainly something of a Swiss tradition,” Stähli told swissinfo, “and that’s why I’m going to try to do my best in Salt Lake. You can really feel the attention now with a lot of people in Switzerland wanting to find out more about the sport. That’s definitely a good sign for the sport’s development.”

Stähli’s strong potential as an Olympic champion is all the more remarkable when one discovers that he actually retired from the sport eight years ago. Back then, the man from Zurich thought he had won all the honours he possibly could.

“In 1994 I became world champion and decided it was time to do a business course because I had a full set of world championship medals,” Stähli explains. “Then in 1999, unbelievable but true, skeleton became an Olympic sport so I thought I’d have to come back and try for an Olympic medal.”

Having introduced his son to the sport, Stähli’s father Burgmar was understandably excited about the prospect of skeleton’s Olympic return, but the rest of the family weren’t so easily convinced.

“Some of them told me it didn’t make any sense, and that I should stick to my career,” Stähli recalls, “but my father was of course very excited and convinced me that the Olympics were too big an opportunity to miss.”

After an uninspiring first season back in the sport, Stähli has been the dominant force in skeleton this season with his only defeat of the season coming, somewhat ironically, during the last World Cup event in St Moritz. Pushing Stähli into a rare second place that day was American rider Chris Soule and it’s from the American team that the Swiss expects the strongest competition.

“The Americans are almost certain to be my main rivals,” Stähli reckons, “and it will be very difficult to beat them on their home track. The Canadians are also very strong, though, and with Austria’s Martin Rettl also looking good I think it will be a very close race.”

Switzerland’s only other entrant in the men’s competition, Felix Poletti, is unlikely to be squeezing in among the top riders. In last year’s Olympic trials, the 36-year-old from Zurich managed only a 16th place finish.

Pedersen-Bieri among top women

However, much more is expected of Bern’s Maya Pedersen-Bieri, Switzerland’s only participant in the women’s competition.

Renowned, like Stähli, for her speed in the starting sprint, Pedersen-Bieri was crowned world champion in Calgary earlier this season before finishing third on the Olympic run behind Britain’s Alex Coomber and Canada’s Michele Kelly.

Having been beaten by Coomber to the overall World Cup title by just a single point, Pedersen-Bieri will be keen to take her revenge at the Utah Olympic Park and possibly help bring Switzerland two gold medals in this historically Swiss sport.

by Mark Ledsom

Swiss Olympic skeleton squad

Men: Gregor Stähli, Felix Poletti

Women: Maya Pedersen-Bieri

Olympic timetable

February 20, Men’s and women’s finals (two runs)