What does it take to deliver a medal-winning performance in skeleton, which involves racing down a banked track faster than a car on a freeway, with your face mere centimetres from the ice?
Bobsled, luge and skeleton athletes descend twisting, steep tracks at speeds upward of 80 mph (130 kmh).
AP Photo/Sergey Ponomarev
It may look like athletes in bobsled, luge and skeleton simply grab a sled and hang on until the bottom, but high-speed physics and tiny motions mean the difference between gold and a crash.
Jana Pittman, an accomplished summer Olympian, will compete in the bobsleigh event this week in Sochi.
AAP/Dean Lewins
Jana Pittman has always been fast on the athletics track, but now she has the opportunity to display not only her speed, but her strength and versatility, when she becomes “the muscle at the back” of a…
Jana Pittman will be Australia’s first female athlete to compete in both Summer and Winter Olympics.
Dave Hunt/AAP
Reaching the Olympic Games is undoubtedly the highlight of any athletic career, but this year will be the first time a female Australian athlete has participated in both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games…
This old thing? Just found it lying around in the shed.
Andrew Milligan/PA
The British terrain and climate are not really designed for winter sports – there are few mountains suitable for skiing and our winters simply aren’t cold enough. Yet Team GB will be taking a 56-strong…