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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Two members of the U.S. Olympic team discuss what it takes to win in one of the Winter Games' most dangerous events, where competitors shoot headfirst down an ice track at autobahn speeds.
Feb 8, 2002 | Tristan Gale, 22, and Chris Soule, 29, of the U.S. Olympic team, are sliders. Their sport is skeleton, a solo event, which requires them to whip down an ice track of deep curves and straightaways, face down, headfirst, on a torso-sized sled (the name comes from the look of the first sleds, made in the 19th century, a metal framework that vaguely resembled a skeleton). During practice runs at the track in Park City, Utah, Soule, who stands 6 feet and weighs 167 pounds, has reached speeds approaching 85 miles an hour. "I'm in control of the sled just about the whole way down the track," he says, "unless I hit a wall or lose my focus. I'm in control every 100th of a second. You have to be very precise and be on top of your game when it comes to keeping that speed going down the hill." Gale, who, at 5 feet 2 inches, 108 pounds, is significantly lighter than Soule, pokes along at a mere 80 miles an hour. "I have total control of where I am," she says; "I can't come to a stop at any point until I come to the finish line, but I can choose to be anywhere I want on the track."
Soule started racing in the skeleton event 10 years ago. Gale was a ski racer until four years ago when she got a taste of sliding. "Someone who hasn't done this can do it; it just depends on how scared they are of the speed," Gale says. "If you know you're definitely scared of speed, there's no way you'll ever like this. Because it doesn't slow down at all, it only gets faster."
Men's skeleton returns to the games this year as a full medal sport after an absence of 54 years; it's the first time ever for women's skeleton. A typical run lasts just seconds; hundredths of a second separate the winners from the rest. And there's considerably more to skeleton than meets the eye. In this conversation Soule and Gale discuss just what it takes (in addition to fearlessness) -- from the starting push, to the steering, to understanding the aerodynamics and precisely navigating the curves -- to prevail in one of the Winter Olympics' fastest and most unforgiving sports.
Chris Soule: It's all about entrances and exits to curves. We're lying flat with our shoulders pushed into the sled and our knees doing most of the driving. So we're trying to control loops and curves. A lot of the curves have pressure points that pull you up, and then, when they release you, you fall down on the curve, and then they pull you up again in another section. You want to make the straightest line through a set of curves. So you drive by pushing your knees down on the sled. In a straightaway you can drive the sled left or right by driving the same way that you would in a curve. Too much control takes away potential speed, and not enough puts you in the wrong position when you're exiting a curve or a section of curves. That basically scrubs off time, by being out of control.
Tristan Gale: I'm probably a lot more out of control than Chris is. I have a big bruise on my hand to prove it. I seem to smack the wall quite a bit more. You can tell when you're going fast. I can usually hold my head up through just about anything. If I can't hold my head up, I can tell I'm going really fast, especially on race day. It'll hit the ice and just drag along it for a minute. And I think, "Oh, man, I'm going fast." I can sense it. I can't necessarily control how fast I go. I don't see much, except for the ice that's right in front of me. That seems to go at the same speed. So I can't tell if I'm going fast except with that one way -- with my head hitting.
CS: I've gone down a hill where I don't remember the run afterwards. Those runs have been really fast. I've also had runs where everything seems like it's going slow and I'm right there in the moment and everything's coming at me, but I know precisely what I want to do. Those runs have been fast also. There's a straightaway in Calgary. It's long, probably 150 meters or so. Once you're tucked into your sled and you're in position you just hear the wind whipping by your head. You can feel it pressing against your body as you get ready to go into the next curve. That's one of those moments where it just feels right and the speed is right there. You get to mid 70s on that one. It's not as fast as going down the Park City track. But it's a long straightaway, and you don't have to do anything except to make sure you're going straight down there. Everyplace else, you're concentrating on what you're doing, how you're driving, you're sensing the track and you're reacting to it. When you get down to doing nothing, when you're going straight, then you can concentrate on aerodynamics and form. You get the sense of the speed coming at you.
TG: That's for people who go straight through the straightaways. They're the hardest thing for me. I just don't go straight real well.
CS: I think it might be because you don't have the G-force pushing down on the sled and holding you in a position. You're one of the lighter sliders, so if the sled's going sideways, it's going to stay that way. Someone heavier pushing down in the sled makes the grooves in the runners grip onto the ice and you can steer better.
