Skeleton is a winter sliding sport in which a person rides a small sled, known as a skeleton bobsled, down a frozen track while lying face down and head-first. The sport and the sled may have been named from the bony appearance of the sled.
Maya Pedersen-Bieri is a Swiss-Norwegian skeleton racer who has competed since 1995. She won the gold medal in the women's skeleton event at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin. She retired from the sport in 2010 before returning to compete for Norway in 2016, becoming at the oldest woman to start a World Cup race when she returned to the top level of skeleton in 2017. She is listed in the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation athlete registration system as Maya Pedersen.
Shelley Rudman is a former skeleton bobsleigh athlete. She was the 2013 world champion in the event, won an Olympic silver medal at the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in skeleton and is a former World Cup and European champion.
Kaillie Humphries is a Canadian and 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.
The FIBT World Championships 2012 took place from 13 to 26 February 2012 at the bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton track in Lake Placid, New York for the tenth time. Lake Placid had previously hosted the World Championships in 1949, 1961, 1969, 1973, 1978, 1983, 1997 (skeleton), 2003, and 2009.
The FIBT World Championships 2013 took place at the St. Moritz-Celerina Olympic Bobrun in St. Moritz, Switzerland for the record twenty-second time, after hosting the event previously in 1931 (Four-man), 1935 (Four-man), 1937 (Four-man), 1938 (Two-man), 1939 (Two-man), 1947, 1955, 1957, 1959, 1965, 1970, 1974, 1977, 1982, 1987, 1989 (Skeleton), 1990 (Bobsleigh), 1997 (Bobsleigh), 1998 (Skeleton), 2001, and 2007.
Joska Le Conté is a Dutch skeleton racer who has competed since 2006. Prior to starting in skeleton, she was a pole vaulter; when not competing, she works for the Royal Dutch Motorsport Association (KNMV) as a policy officer. Her skeleton coach is Martin Rettl, who works with a number of athletes from small nations under the name "Badass Skeleton Team". Although Le Conté earned a second quota for Dutch women's skeleton at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, she did not meet the stricter qualification standards of the Dutch Olympic Committee, and the second Dutch quota was reallocated to Switzerland.
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.
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.
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, 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.
Elisabeth Maier is a retired Canadian skeleton racer. In 2008, she was encouraged to try sliding sports by her father, who had shared an airplane trip with members of the Canadian luge team, but as a 14-year-old, she was too young to train bobsleigh, so she tried out for skeleton instead. She used a Bromley sled. Vathje was named one of the three women to represent Canada in skeleton at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang after finishing third in the World Cup season standings for 2017–18. She is married to Austrian bobsleigh driver Benjamin Maier. She retired in 2022 after being left off the Canadian team for the 2021–22 season.
Laura Deas is a British sportswoman, best known as a skeleton racer on the World Cup circuit, representing the British Bobsleigh and Skeleton Association. She won bronze at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
Jacqueline "Jacka" Lölling is a German skeleton racer who has won numerous races and championships, including the inaugural Winter Youth Olympics skeleton competition in 2012 and the 2017 World Championships. She began competing in skeleton at the age of 12 and was selected to the German national team in 2009. She won her first two international races, as a fifteen-year-old on the Europe Cup circuit, at Cesana Pariol in 2010. Her personal coach is Kathi Wichterle, and she rides an FES sled. When not racing, Lölling works for the German Federal Police.
Tina Hermann is a German skeleton racer and a four-time World champion. She began racing in 2007 and was selected to the national team in 2009. She is coached by Dirk Matschenz (personal) and Jens Müller (national); away from the track, she is a police officer.
Mirela "Mimi" Rahneva is a Bulgarian-Canadian skeleton racer. Her family immigrated to Canada in 1997; her father, Stoyan, was a competitive gymnast, and her mother was an elite sprinter. After playing rugby in high school and at the University of Guelph, she began competing in skeleton in 2012 and was selected to the Canadian national team in 2016. She is coached by Quin Sekulich and rides a Bromley sled. She was named one of the three women to represent Canada in skeleton at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang after earning eighth on the World Cup season standings for 2017–18.
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.
Anna Fernstädt, also known as Anna Fernstädtová, is a Czech-German skeleton racer who competes on the Skeleton World Cup circuit. She started competing in 2011 and was selected to the German national team in 2013. In May 2018, she announced on her personal Twitter account that she was joining the Czech Republic team for the 2018–19 season.
Anna Berreiter is a German luger. She is the 2023 World and European Champion and silver medallist at the 2022 Winter Olympics. A two-time Under-23 World Champion, Berreiter was also part of the German squad that took the World team relay title in 2023 and has won further 1 silver and 1 bronze medals in sprint discipline at the World Championships level. She is the youngest woman to win a Luge World Cup race, and so far, has won 4 individual races in her World Cup career.
Kim Kalicki is a German bobsledder who competes for TuS Eintracht Wiesbaden 1846. She also representing the Germany national team since 2015 and won the silver medal in the two-woman bobsleigh event at the Bobsleigh World Championships in 2020 and 2021 with Kira Lipperheide and Ann-Christin Strack, respectively.
