Winter Olympic events (short track,skeleton)

Short track

Short track is a skating event that occurs on an oval track that is 111 meters around (364 feet). There are individual events, relay events and events where many skaters skate at once. It can be a dangerous sport because of the sharp skates, high speeds and the number of racers on the track at once. Skaters wear hard plastic helmets, special suits that are molded to their body, knee pads, shin pads, and gloves. Their ice skates are designed just for short track racing. They are very sharp and curved just a bit. There are four different events for men and women, three individual races and two relays. The relays have teams for four racers and are very exciting. The women race 3000 meters and the men race 5000 meters. Short track is fast and exciting! 

Skeleton

Skeleton is an amazing sport that is similar to sledding. It was the first sledding sport for the Olympics. This sport is coming back to the Olympic Winter Games for the third time since 1948. In this sport, the equipment needed is a sled, a special suit, and a helmet. A skeleton is a steel sled with two runners. When you're going down a hill on the sled, you have to go on your stomach and you go head first, that’s one of the rules for skeleton. There are rules about the size and weight of the sled. There are also rules that say how much the sled and driver together can weigh. If you think that skeleton is only for men, it isn't, it's also for women!

The racers, running with spiked shoes, push the sled to get it started, they have 30 seconds to get it started. They steer by shifting their weight or lightly dragging a toe. They have to use the same sled for each run unless their sled gets broken and can't be repaired. The runners must be made a solid piece of steel. The judges even check the temperature of the runners, there are rules about that too!

The racers make a first run. The top 20 men racers and top 12 women racer get a second run. Those two runs happen on the same day. Their times are added up and the best time wins!