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 who was the 2013 world champion in the event. She won a silver medal at the 2006 Winter Olympics, and is 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. In 2020 Upperton won a Canadian Screen Award for “Best Sports Analyst” for her coverage of the Bobsleigh World Championship event with Mark Lee. She went to high school at Dr. E.P. Scarlett High School and graduated from the University of Texas in Austin with a BSc.
Heather Moyse is a Canadian athlete and two-time Olympic gold medalist, representing Canada in international competition as a bobsledder, rugby union player, and track cyclist and competing at the Canadian intercollegiate level in rugby, soccer and track and field.
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-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.
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.
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.
Elisabeth Vathje 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 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.
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.
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.
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.
Cynthia Appiah is a Canadian bobsledder who has been competing in the sport since 2014. Appiah made her World Cup debut in 2016. In 2018, she shifted to the pilot position and later made her World Cup debut as a bobsleigh pilot in the 2019/2020 season. At the IBSF World Championships 2021 in Altenberg, Germany, Appiah placed fifth and ninth in monobob and two-woman bobsleigh, respectively.
