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 skeleton bobsleigh athlete. She was the 2013 world champion in the event, an Olympic silver medal at the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in skeleton and a former World Cup and European champion.
Helen Lesley Upperton is a Canadian bobsledder who has competed since 2002. Upperton was born in Ahmadi, Kuwait as her parents involvement in the oil industry meant they traveled abroad. She holds dual citizenship of both Great Britain and Canada. Upperton won the silver medal at the 2010 Winter Olympics after previously finishing fourth in the two-woman event at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin. She went to high school at Dr. E.P. Scarlett High School
Anne O'Shea is an American skeleton racer. She got interested in skeleton after meeting the father of skeletoner John Daly at the Empire State Games in 2004, and was first selected to the national team in 2006; like many skeleton and bobsled racers, she came to the sport from track and field. O'Shea attended California University of Pennsylvania. She has won the national championship three times in her career, and was twice selected USA Bobsled-Skeleton Athlete of the Year. Away from the track, O'Shea is an MBA student at DeVry University's Keller Graduate School of Management.
Michelle Kelly is a Canadian former skeleton racer who competed from 1994 to 2013. A two-time Olympian, Kelly is largely considered to be one of the pioneers of the sport of Women's Skeleton. Originally an elite gymnast, she was recruited for her explosive power to the Canadian Women's National Bobsleigh Team as a brakeman, competing from 1994 to 1999. In 1995 Kelly started sliding Skeleton and competing in both sports. When Women's Skeleton and Bobsled were both named to make their debut at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Kelly chose Skeleton. She finished 10th at those 2002 Games, and went on to earn the Olympic alternate position at the 2006 Torino Olympics, and another Olympic birth at the 2010 Winter Olympics, finishing 13th. Kelly won a complete set of medals at the FIBT World Championships with a gold in 2003, a silver in 2008, and a bronze in 2005, as well as taking the women's Skeleton World Cup overall title in 2002-3.
Kaillie Humphries is a Canadian-born bobsledder who currently represents the United States. Representing Canada, Humphries is a two-time Olympic champion in the two-woman, and is the 2018 Olympic bronze medalist with brakeman Phylicia George. With her victory in 2014, she became the first female bobsledder to defend her Olympic title. Due to her repeat championship, she was named flagbearer for the closing ceremonies at the 2014 Olympic Games together with brakewoman Heather Moyse. Humphries is also the two-time defending overall World Cup champion. To date, she is the most successful Canadian bobsledder in history. In 2019, she switched to representing the United States because of abuse and harassment that she claims she faced from the Canadian bobsled federation.
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.
Kyle Tress is an American Olympic skeleton racer who competed from 2002 until 2017. He placed 25th in the 2011 FIBT World Championships in Konigssee, Germany. His best World Cup finish was 5th in the men's event at St. Moritz, Switzerland on January 11, 2013 and Lake Placid, NY on November 5, 2012. On January 18, 2014, Tress was named to the 2014 Olympic team. His last World Cup race was in February, 2017, at Igls, where he finished in 19th place; the following season, Tress began coaching the Japanese national team.
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. Prior to starting skeleton, she was an association football (soccer) 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.
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, 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 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 uses 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.
Laura Deas is a British sports woman, 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.
Tina Hermann is a German skeleton racer and a three-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.
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.
Jaclyn Narracott is an Australian skeleton racer who competes on the Skeleton World Cup circuit. She began international skeleton competition in 2012 when she joined the Australian national team; in 2011 she competed in bobsleigh for two European Cup races. Narracott has competed on the World Cup, the top level of international skeleton, since 2014; prior to that she competed on the European and North American Cups. She slides on a Bromley sled, and lives and trains in Bath, England, with the British bobsleigh and skeleton athletes. Australian Olympic track and bobsleigh athlete Paul Narracott is her uncle. She is in a relationship with British skeleton slider Dom Parsons.
Anna Fernstädtová, also known as Anna Fernstädt, is a Czech 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.
Takako Oguchi is a Japanese skeleton racer who has competed since 2003 and joined the Japanese national team in 2005. She uses a Bromley sled. She married in 2015.
