Bobsleigh · Luge · Skeleton
The Sliding History Quiz
Twelve surprising stories from all three sliding sports. Choose an answer, reveal the fact, then follow it straight to the relevant passage.
Bobsleigh
What did one of the St. Moritz Bobsleigh Club’s original 1897 rules require?
Two of the five committee members had to be women, and the first organised race required two women in every five-person crew.
Luge
What made Josef and Maria Isser’s 1955 World Championship medal unique?
The brother and sister won doubles silver, still the only mixed-sex doubles medal at a major championship.
Skeleton
How long did the Cresta Run’s ban on women last?
The ban began in 1929 and was lifted in 2018, eighty-nine years later.
Bobsleigh
Why was there no Olympic bobsleigh event in 1960?
The California organisers decided not to build an expensive track for the nine nations expected to compete.
Luge
What unprecedented Olympic sequence did Georg Hackl complete in 2002?
Hackl won a singles medal at every Games from 1988 through 2002, something no athlete had done in one individual event.
Skeleton
Who won the first skeleton World Championship in 1982?
Austrian Gert Elsässer won the first World Championship on the St. Moritz bob run.
Bobsleigh
How many Olympic bobsleigh medal ties occurred at Nagano in 1998?
Canada and Italy tied for two-man gold, while Britain and France tied for four-man bronze.
Luge
The closest Olympic luge finish was compared with the length of what object?
Two thousandths of a second across nearly five kilometres of ice amounted to roughly the length of a matchbox.
Skeleton
Who became the first women’s Olympic skeleton champion?
Twenty-one-year-old Tristan Gale won the inaugural women’s Olympic event at Salt Lake City in 2002.
Bobsleigh
What condition left Steven Holcomb driving elite bobsleighs almost entirely by feel?
Keratoconus warped Holcomb’s corneas and reduced his vision to 20/500 before treatment restored his sight.
Luge
How does one slider release the next athlete in an Olympic luge team relay?
Each athlete hits a touch pad over the finish, which opens the start gate for the next sled.
Skeleton
What major facility did Britain lack while developing Amy Williams’s Olympic sled?
Britain had engineering expertise and a push ramp, but no ice track of its own.
Finished