1948 Winter Olympics / Skeleton

Skeleton at the 1948 Winter Olympics
information
venue	St. Moritz
Competition venue	Cresta Run
Nations	9
Athletes	15 (15 )
date	February 17, 1928
decisions	1
← St. Moritz 1928 Salt Lake City 2002 →

A skeleton competition was held at the 5th Olympic Winter Games in St. Moritz in 1948 . The venue was the Cresta Run natural track .

Medal table

space	country				total
1	Italy	1	-	-	1
2	United States	-	1	-	1
3	Great Britain	-	-	1	1

Result

sport	skeleton
discipline	skeleton
gender	Men
Attendees	15 athletes from 9 countries
Competition location	Cresta Run
Competition phase	February 3rd and 5th, 1948
Winning time	5: 23.2 min
Medalist  Nino Bibbia ( ITA )  John Heaton ( USA )  John Crammond ( GBR )

15 athletes competed, only 9 completed all six runs. Milo Bigler , Dialma Balsegia , Christian Fischbacher (all Switzerland), William Gayraud-Hirigoyen (France), William Johnson (USA) and Hugo Kuranda (Austria) retired early. Like 20 years before, John Heaton won the silver medal and until 2006 ( Gregor Stähli ) remained the only skeleton pilot who could win an Olympic medal in this sport more than once.

In the first of the three races on Tuesday morning (shortened start at Junction ), the Swiss Christian Fischbacher gave up an important preliminary decision. John Crammond set the fastest time and clearly distanced Heaton and Bibbia. The picture changed in the second run, because Heaton and Bibbia undercut Crammond, in the third run they came even closer; they were ex aequo on rank 2 and only 0.2 seconds behind the British. The two US starters Johnson and Martin, who were classified in the other places, were already clearly distant, the two Swiss Bigler and Kägi (this ex aequo with Bott) were on ranks 6 and 7. MacCarthy and Coats took 9th place, followed by the fourth Swiss starter Balsegia in 11th place.

The result of the second day of competition (start at full length, therefore significantly longer running times) was identical in terms of the ranking to that of the final ranking. Bigler was still there, but he was carried off the track in the fourth run and in the sixth run he had to stop driving at the dangerous Shuttlecoach Corner . Baseglia was unable to take part because of a broken rib, while Kägi improved from seventh to fifth. With the gold medal from Nino Bibbia, Italy won the first ever medal at the Olympic Winter Games. The award ceremony took place in the first third break of the ice hockey game Switzerland against the ČSR.

rank	athlete	nation	Run						total
			1	2	3	4th	5	6th
1	Nino Bibbia	Italy	48.0 s	47.6 s	47.6 s	59.5 s	60.2 s	60.3 s	5: 23.2 min
2	John Heaton	United States	48.1 s	47.4 s	47.7 s	60.0 s	60.2 s	61.2 s	5: 24.6 min
3	John Crammond	Great Britain	47.4 s	47.7 s	47.9 s	60.9 s	60.9 s	60.3 s	5: 25.1 min
4th	William Martin	United States	47.8 s	49.2 s	48.2 s	60.7 s	61.6 s	60.5 s	5: 28.0 min
5	Gottfried Kägi	Switzerland	48.9 s	48.8 s	48.7 s	60.8 s	61.6 s	61.1 s	5: 29.9 min
6th	Richard Bott	Great Britain	48.3 s	48.9 s	49.2 s	61.5 s	61.4 s	61.4 s	5: 30.7 min
7th	James Stuart Coats	Great Britain	48.8 s	48.7 s	49.0 s	62.3 s	61.7 s	61.4 s	5: 31.9 min
8th	Fairchilds MacCarthy	United States	48.8 s	48.3 s	49.4 s	63.6 s	62.7 s	62.7 s	5: 35.5 min
9	Thomas Clarke	Great Britain	49.7 s	49.9 s	49.3 s	63.5 s	63.8 s	62.8 s	5: 39.0 min
10	Charles Johnson	United States	47.7 s	48.4 s	48.0	DNS	DNS	DNS
11	Milo Bigler	Switzerland	48.4 s	48.4 s	48.7 s	DNS	DNS	DNS
12	Dialma Balsegia	Switzerland	49.2 s	49.0 s	48.6 s	DNS	DNS	DNS
13	William Gayraud-Hirigoyen	France	52.7 s	49.9 s	51.0 s	DNS	DNS	DNS
14th	Christian Fischbacher	Switzerland	unknown			DNS	DNS	DNS
15th	Hugo Kuranda	Austria	unknown			DNS	DNS	DNS

Web links

• Skeleton at the 1928 Winter Olympics in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Official report of the 1948 Winter Olympics (PDF; 3.7 MB)

Individual evidence

1. ^ "Crammond leads the skeleton after three runs". In: Sport Zürich, February 4, 1948, p. 5.
2. ↑ «Decision made in skeleton too». In: Sport Zürich, February 6, 1948, p. 7.
3. ^ "Where did the Olympic medals go in 1948?" In: Sport Zürich, February 7, 1948, p. 1.