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Martins Dukurs is a former Latvian skeleton racer, currently a coach, who has competed since 1998. He is a six-time world champion in men's skeleton, a double Olympic silver winner, and the athlete with the most World Cup titles with a total of 11, having won eight consecutive titles between 2010 and 2017, plus another three consecutive titles between 2020 and 2022.
Mellisa Hollingsworth is a retired Canadian athlete who competed from 1995 to 2014. She won the bronze medal in the women's skeleton event at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin.
Noelle Pikus-Pace is an American retired skeleton racer who began her career in 2001. She won five medals at the FIBT World Championships, competed in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, and won the silver medal in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
Frank Rommel is a German retired skeleton racer who began competing internationally in 2002. He won two medals at the FIBT World Championships with a gold in the mixed team (2009) and a bronze in the men's skeleton event 2008.
Louise Corcoran is a New Zealand skeleton racer who has competed since 2000. She finished 12th in the women's skeleton event at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin. Her best World Cup result was 11th in Sigulda in 2005.
Kaillie Humphries is a Canadian-American bobsledder. Representing Canada, she was the 2010 and 2014 Olympic champion in the two-woman bobsled and the 2018 Olympic bronze medalist with brakewoman Phylicia George. With her victory in 2014, she became the first female bobsledder to defend her Olympic title and was named flagbearer for the Olympic closing ceremony with brakewoman Heather Moyse.
Nozomi Komuro is a Japanese skeleton racer who has competed since 2004 and joined the Japanese national team in 2005. She uses a Bromley sled.
Maria Marinela Mazilu is a Romanian skeleton racer on the Skeleton World Cup circuit. She began competing in 2002 and was selected to the national team in 2004. She was the bronze medalist at the Junior World Championships at Igls in 2012 and again at Winterberg in 2014. Mazilu qualified for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver where she finished 19th, and for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi where she finished 20th.
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Elizabeth Anne Yarnold, OBE is a British former skeleton racer who joined the Great Britain national squad in 2010. With consecutive Olympic gold medals in 2014 and 2018, she is the most successful British Winter Olympian and the most successful Olympic skeleton athlete of all time from any nation. She won the 2013–14 Skeleton World Cup, followed by a gold in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Yarnold was selected to be one of the two women skeleton drivers representing Team GB at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, and went on to become the first person to defend an Olympic gold in skeleton and the first British athlete to defend a Winter Olympic title. Yarnold set the track record for women's skeleton at the Olympic venue in the final heat of the race with a time of 51.46 seconds, beating Jacqueline Lölling's pre-Olympic record by nearly 1.3 seconds and her own first-heat record by 0.2 second. Yarnold was also the flag bearer for Great Britain at the Pyeongchang opening ceremony.
Elena Valeryevna Nikitina is a Russian skeleton racer who joined the national squad in 2009. She rides a Schneider sled, and her coach is Denis Alimov. Before starting skeleton, she was an association football player.
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Sophia Griebel is a German skeleton racer who has raced at the Winter Olympics and the Skeleton World Cup. She started racing skeleton in 2005 and was selected to the German national team in 2008; she was a luger before switching to skeleton. Her personal coach is Christian Baude and she uses an FES sled. Away from sport, she works for the German Federal Police. Griebel was injured in 2016 and spent 18 months recovering before returning to the World Cup circuit in November 2017, but after poor showings in the season's first two races, she was replaced on the German World Cup squad by Anna Fernstädt.
Marina Gilardoni is a Swiss skeleton racer and former bobsleigh brakewoman. After starting her sporting career in heptathlon at the club level, Gilardoni began racing bobsleigh in 2007 and earned a place on the Swiss national team. She won gold medals at the Junior World Championships in 2008 behind driver Fabienne Meyer and in 2010 with Sabina Hafner driving. After the 2009–10 season, she switched from bobsleigh to skeleton. In 2018, Gilardoni was selected to represent Switzerland in the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang after the Dutch Olympic Committee refused one of their two entries and it was reallocated to Switzerland.
Lelde Priedulēna is a former Latvian skeleton racer, and was the 2016 Junior World Champion in the sport. She participated at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Before starting skeleton racing, Priedulēna was a track and field athlete, competing in the 60, 100, and 200 metre sprint events. Like other Latvian skeletoners, she is coached by sled-builder and former Latvian bobsleigh driver Dainis Dukurs, and rides a Dukurs-built sled. She began international competition in 2010 on the Europe Cup circuit, but recorded only five starts during two seasons before being elevated to the Intercontinental Cup and World Cup tours. In the summer of 2017, she tore a cruciate ligament during training, but elected to forgo surgery and continue training in preparation for the 2018 Winter Olympics. In February 2019 Priedulēna announced end of her professional career due to the injuries.
Kimberley Bos is a Dutch skeleton racer who competes on the Skeleton World Cup circuit. She started competing internationally in 2009, originally in bobsleigh, and was selected to the Dutch national team in 2010; she switched to skeleton for the 2013–14 European Cup season. Her personal coach is Urta Rozenstruik, and she rides a Bromley sled. Away from the track, Bos is a physiotherapy student, occasionally serving as "unofficial physio" to the other athletes. Bos was the only woman named to represent the Netherlands in skeleton at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, where she finished eighth. Bos returned for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, where she won the bronze medal and became the first Dutch skeleton athlete to win a medal.
References
- ↑ Katharine Eustace – New Zealand Archived 4 July 2014 at the Wayback Machine – Sochi 2014 Olympics
- ↑ Cook, Marjorie (3 September 2009). "No NZ venue for our world-class lugers". Otago Daily Times Online News. Retrieved 20 November 2017.
- ↑ Leggat, David (6 February 2014). "Winter Olympics: Skeleton holds no horrors for Eustace". NZ Herald. ISSN 1170-0777 . Retrieved 20 November 2017.
- ↑ "Congratulations to our Katharine Eustace who qualified for the Winter Olympics | Physiotherapy New Zealand". physiotherapy.org.nz. 29 January 2014. Retrieved 20 November 2017.
