2010 Winter Olympics / Skeleton

Skeleton at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games
information
venue	Whistler
Competition venue	Whistler Sliding Center
Nations	19th
Athletes	48 (28 , 20 )
date	18. – 19. February 2010
decisions	2
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At the XXI. 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver found two competitions in Skeleton instead. The decisions were made in a men's and a women's competition, both of which were held for the first time in four rounds. The venue was the Whistler Sliding Center in the Fitzsimmons Creek valley near Whistler . Top speeds of up to 140 km / h were reached on the 1395 meter long track with 16 curves.

The first two rounds took place on February 18th, the two final one day after. Olympic champions were the Canadian Jon Montgomery and the British Amy Williams , who both achieved their first international titles at major events. The only nation whose athletes won two medals was Germany; Kerstin Szymkowiak and Anja Huber secured silver and bronze in the women's competition and thus the first ever skeleton medals for their country.

Medal winners, from left: Martins Dukurs , Jon Montgomery , Alexander Tretyakov

Medal winners, from left: Kerstin Szymkowiak , Amy Williams , Anja Huber

Balance sheet

Medal table

space	country				total
1	Canada	1	-	-	1
	United Kingdom	1	-	-	1
3	Germany	-	1	1	2
4th	Latvia	-	1	-	1
5	Russia	-	-	1	1

Medalist

competitor	gold	silver	bronze
Men	Jon Montgomery	Martin's course	Alexander Tretyakov
Women	Amy Williams	Kerstin Szymkowiak	Anja Huber

Apron

Qualification mode and nominated athletes

The logo of the international umbrella organization, the FIBT

As in other Olympic disciplines, the international umbrella organization FIBT and the National Olympic Committees of the countries concerned jointly determined which athletes would take part in the Olympic Games. The FIBT compiled a list of all potentially qualified skeleton pilots for both men and women. The decision on the nomination of individual athletes then rests with the committees. Some athletes who had basically secured the right to start at the Olympics thanks to good results in the season did not get this chance because they did not meet the country-specific standards or were not among the best athletes in their country.

The qualification phase ended on January 17, 2010 with the World Cup in St. Moritz . The FIBT then published a world ranking list that took into account all of the events it officially hosted. In addition to the - more heavily weighted - World Cup races, competitions from the European Cup , the Intercontinental Cup and the America's Cup were also included in the rating. All athletes who were among the top 60 in the men's list or among the best 45 in the women's list could now theoretically be nominated for the Olympic Games by their respective national committees. However, since the Olympic starting field was limited to 30 men and 20 women and thus weaker countries also had the opportunity to make nominations, each country was given certain specifications as to the maximum number of athletes it could send. The highest number was three athletes, so many starters were only allowed to nominate the best three nations for men and the best two countries for women. Without this restriction, for example, twelve Canadians and seven Germans would have qualified. As a result, however, a number of athletes who had performed better than the nominated athletes lost their right to participate. This applied, for example, to the fourth-best and therefore not nominated German Kathleen Lorenz , who was placed fifteenth in the world rankings significantly better than the Italian Costanza Zanoletti , who was allowed to start as the best athlete in her country.

The following table, which can be opened, lists all athletes who have qualified for the Olympic Winter Games, i.e. were among the top 60 in the men's world rankings or among the best 45 in the women's world rankings. No mention is made of the drivers who had no chance of being nominated because they were not among the top two or three athletes in their country. Therefore, there are sometimes larger gaps in the first column Position , which represents the placement in the world rankings. Athletes who achieved the qualifications specified by the FIBT but who could not meet the norm set by the respective NOK and thus did not start at the Olympics are marked with a gray background. Further information can be found in the text below the table.

In the men's category, the Swiss Daniel Mächler was not nominated by Swiss Olympic because he did not meet their criteria - twice under the top ten in the World Cup. Mächler reacted disappointed and angry and published a statement on his homepage in which he sharply attacked the association. The Austrian Markus Penz also failed to meet the standard of the Austrian Olympic Committee and was therefore not nominated. This means that there was only one Swiss and one Austrian starter at the Winter Olympics. In the Netherlands, the NOK completely waived the nomination of a skeleton pilot. For both men and women, the Dutch committee gave back the only starting place that would otherwise have gone to Peter van Wees and Joska Le Conté . The Italian Nicola Drocco , who moved up, benefited from the decisions . As no other athlete met the FIBT qualification criteria, the last two places in the men's category remained vacant, so that only 28 instead of the planned 30 athletes took part in the men's competition in Vancouver. In Great Britain and Japan no starting place was given back, but instead of Chris Type from Wales and Hiroyuki Bamba , the committees nominated other athletes who were lower in the world rankings. Type said that he could not understand the decision, especially since it was not explained to him.

There were significantly fewer changes among women. Except for the Dutch, who did without Joska Le Conté , all nations made use of their full starting right. For Le Conté, the Romanian Maria Mazilu moved up to the field of participants, which as planned comprised 20 athletes. The German Michaela Gläßer , who was ahead of Mazilu in the qualification and starting for the Czech Republic, could not take the free starting place because she did not yet have a Czech passport. A week before the competitions, the Olympic Committee of the American Virgin Islands tried in vain to obtain an increase in the size of the women's field. In order to enable the start of their athlete Alexa Putnam , the committee had requested that the two unused men's starting places be transferred to the women's competition, in which two additional female drivers could have participated. The FIBT disagreed, the International Court of Justice agreed with this decision.

Favorites

Duff Gibson , retired 2006 Olympic gold medalist

In the men's category, the 2006 Olympic champion, Canadian Duff Gibson , ended his career after the success. The reigning Swiss World Champion Gregor Stähli was also unable to compete in the Olympic competitions after a muscle torn off at a World Cup in November 2009. The favorite was the Latvian Martins Dukurs , who won four of the eight competitions in the 2009/10 Skeleton World Cup and thus the overall ranking. The two Germans Frank Rommel and Sandro Stielicke were placed further behind him ; However, Stielicke in particular had his major successes in the first half of the season. Another favorite was the Canadian Jon Montgomery , who had triumphed in February 2009 in the test competitions, the so-called “dress rehearsal”, at the Whistler Sliding Center. Montgomery decided a race for themselves in the Olympic World Cup season, but otherwise achieved no further podium results. On the three days of training in Vancouver, the skeleton pilots completed six drives, during which Montgomery and his teammate Michael Douglas each ensured the best times. Other athletes, including the Germans, had problems with the track and achieved results around tenth place.

Mellisa Hollingsworth , co-favorite

The situation for women was - at least in terms of the World Cup - more balanced than for men. Four athletes had won two races each and were among the favorites. The US magazine Sports Illustrated rated the German Kerstin Szymkowiak particularly strong , who had always finished on the podium in the last five races of the season. Besides her, the Canadian Mellisa Hollingsworth was also considered a contender for victory; she had triumphed in the overall World Cup after reaching the podium in seven races. Behind the Canadian, Shelley Rudman was second in the overall World Cup; Anja Huber , who won the first and last World Cup races, was unable to compete in three competitions due to an injury and was accordingly not among the top ten in the overall World Cup. Huber was tipped for third place behind her teammate Szymkowiak and Hollingsworth-Richards by Sports Illustrated . The third German Marion Trott , who was world champion and overall World Cup winner in the previous season and who had won the test competition at the Whistler Sliding Center, but failed to win the 2009/10 World Cup, was rated weaker than her teammates . The reigning Olympic champion Maya Pedersen-Bieri was also given few chances in advance, the defending champion had achieved ninth place as the best result in the World Cup races. Mellisa Hollingsworth confirmed her favorite position during the training runs. In five of the six tests she was the fastest, only once she was beaten by her compatriot Amy Gough . The Germans Anja Huber and Kerstin Szymkowiak and the British Amy Williams also showed good performances . The latter in particular came close to the Canadians from the ages.

The training runs made it clear that the Canadian athletes had a clear home advantage on the Whistler Sliding Center, which was widely regarded as demanding. Michael Douglas, for example, who had never finished in the top five at a World Cup, drove the best times together with his compatriot Jon Montgomery. Anja Huber explained this with the fact that the Canadians had completed more than 100 test runs in advance, while the Germans, for example, only around 30.

Security discussion

Even before the first training runs began, the Whistler Sliding Center was publicly criticized because the specified maximum speed was significantly exceeded, especially when tobogganing. After several falls during toboggan and bobsleigh training, the day before the opening of the Olympic Games, Georgian tobogganist Nodar Kumaritashvili had a fatal accident , which attracted a lot of media attention. Kumaritashvili's death exacerbated the security discussion, which also included skeleton pilots. The Dutch driver Peter van Wees explained that tobogganing is more dangerous than skeleton because there is more friction in tobogganing and the sled sometimes develops its own dynamic. German co-favorite Anja Huber made a similar statement. The skeleton riders have a low center of gravity and a relatively heavy sledge and therefore cannot tip over as easily as tobogganers or bobsledders.

On the other hand, Canadian contender Mellisa Hollingsworth, who suffered a laceration on her head on her home track at the test competitions in early 2009, said after her fall: “All I could think about was that I would die if I completely Go upstairs. ”The Vancouver Sun newspaper also wrote that a ride in a skeleton through the Whistler Sliding Center was like“ shooting down an elevator shaft made of ice on a rattle-thin sled resembling a cafeteria tray ”. In fact, the skeleton training sessions went with significantly fewer falls than the toboggan and bobsleigh competitions. Nevertheless, the route was shortened as a result of the fatal accident.

Men

→ Main article : 2010 Winter Olympics / Skeleton - Men

First and second run

Alexander Tretyakov achieved the best start times and won the bronze medal in the end.

Date: February 18, 2010 - 7:30 p.m. (4:30 a.m. CET, 1st run) - 9:00 p.m. (6:00 a.m. CET, 2nd run)

Due to the withdrawal of several athletes, the field of participants in the men's competition only included 28 athletes from 17 countries. The United States, Canada and Germany, the three most successful nations of the past season, had three starting positions. The actual competition was preceded by six training drives (three per day from February 15th to 17th), in each of which Jon Montgomery was the fastest and thus confirmed his favorite status. For the first time, the competition was held in four rounds and on two days. In the first round, the best athletes in the world rankings started first, so that all favorites had early start numbers. The second run was opened from the twentieth of the first run; then the start list was the backwards reading of the first run. After the leader, the athletes started the race from ranks 21 to 28.

The South Korean Cho In-ho during training on February 18

As the first starter in the first run, Latvian Martins Dukurs immediately set a new track record with 52.32 seconds. No other athlete came closer to this requirement, the three starters following the Latvians, who finished two to four in the overall World Cup, all lost over half a second on Dukurs. Jon Montgomery, who always had a better time in training than his competitor from Latvia, also missed the top position. However, in second place, 0.28 seconds behind, he secured a good starting position for the remaining three races. The fastest start was made by Russian Alexander Tretyakov , who, however, lost a few fractions of a second on the track and dropped to third place behind Dukurs and Montgomery. These three athletes also retained the lead after the remaining athletes completed their race. Behind them were the Austrian Matthias Guggenberger and the Canadian Michael Douglas, who had already done well in the training sessions, two athletes who were not among the top ten in the overall World Cup. In particular, Guggenberger's fourth place - only five hundredths of a second away from Tretyakov's Bronze Square - was taken as surprising in the media; the Austrian himself declared: “I think I got it covered.” The German athletes, who were initially also given medal chances, fell far behind. Only Frank Rommel was sixth, 0.56 seconds behind, in the top ten.

At 9 p.m. local time, the second round started, opened by the athletes who had fallen far behind after the first round. Most of them lost even more ground, such as the German Mirsad Halilovic , who dropped from 11th place after the first run to 16th position. The American Zach Lund , who was third fastest in the second run, showed a good race . With that he improved from tenth to eighth place and despite a failed first run he was only 0.14 seconds behind the bronze rank. Similar achievements were made by the older brother of the leader, Tomass Dukurs , and the Briton Kristan Bromley . Both caught up two places and finished sixth and fifth respectively after half of the competition. With that they overtook Michael Douglas and Frank Rommel; the German remained the best athlete in his country, but fell behind Zach Lund to ninth place. There was no change in the ranking among the top four. However, Guggenberger and Tretyakov lost almost half a second on Dukurs and Montgomery, which completed almost simultaneous trips. Adding to the deficit after the first run, the third-placed Russian was now 0.84 seconds behind Latvian Dukurs, who was in the lead.

Overall, after the first two races it became clear that the decision about victory would be between Dukurs and Montgomery. Alexander Tretyakov had the best start time in both races, but his gap to the leaders had grown significantly. Behind the Russian there were five other athletes who were 0.14 seconds less than a medal. This did not include a German, but Austrian Matthias Guggenberger, who made a small mistake in the lower part of his second run that almost caused his sled to tip over. Guggenberger was annoyed about this and announced a drive for the decisive day of the race in which he wanted to fully attack.

Third and fourth runs

space	country	athlete	Time (min)
1	CAN	Jon Montgomery	3: 29.73
2	LAT	Martin's course	3: 29.80
3	RUS	Alexander Tretyakov	3: 30.75
4th	LAT	Tomass Dukurs	3: 31.13
5	United States	Zach Lund	3: 31.27
6th	GBR	Kristan Bromley	3: 31.30
7th	GER	Frank Rommel	3: 31.40
8th	AUT	Matthias Guggenberger	3: 31.81
9	CAN	Jeff Pain	3: 31.86
10	GER	Sandro Stielicke	3: 32.08

Date: February 19, 2010 - 6:20 p.m. (3:20 a.m. CET, 3rd run) - 7:50 p.m. (4:50 a.m. CET, 4th run)

Before the third run, the field had shrunk again by two participants. The New Zealander Iain Roberts was last of the competition after the first two rounds and did not feel one hundred percent healthy, so he no longer started. While Roberts had no chance anyway, the second failure hit a fellow favorite with Michael Douglas. Douglas, who was seventh after the first day only twelve hundredths of a second behind the bronze medal, was disqualified after arriving too late for the material control. Douglas' team-mate Jon Montgomery, who was runner-up at the time, was saddened by the decision; he can't find words for it and doesn't even want to think about it.

In the third round, the best athletes from the first day started again. Martins Dukurs completed his race ahead of all other starters and set another track record in 52.28 seconds. The next driver, Jon Montgomery, already undercut this time and caught up at least eight hundredths of a second on the Latvians who were still in the lead. He was now only 18 hundredths of a second behind. Alexander Tretyakov was just as fast on the track. However, he again lost a tenth of a second on Montgomery. The Austrian Matthias Guggenberger, who was fourth up until the third run, lost a lot of time, more than 0.7 seconds, to Tretyakov and fell back several places. All other athletes who were tied with the Russian up to then also lost several tenths of a second. Tretyakov had almost 0.4 seconds ahead of the new fourth Tomass Dukurs after the third round. The Germans improved all three by at least two ranks; Frank Rommel showed the fourth best run and in seventh was only a quarter of a second behind fourth.

For the fourth run only the top twenty of the first three runs were allowed. These started in the reverse order of the intermediate classification, so that the decisions about the medals and the Olympic victory were only made with the last riders. Before that, the back starters completed their last run. These included the only Swiss Pascal Oswald , who was 16th, and the Germans Mirsad Halilovic and Sandro Stielicke, who were actually more highly rated. In positions three to eight, the last run had no effect on the result. Frank Rommel remained seventh and thus the best German, Matthias Guggenberger from Austria retained eighth place. Overall, these athletes drove comparable times, so that Tretyakov - who was also the fastest in the first few meters at the start in the final run - was able to secure the bronze medal with a margin of 0.38 seconds over the fourth Tomass Dukurs. His brother was still in the lead after three races, so Jon Montgomery had to submit his race first. With a good running time of 52.36 seconds, Montgomery barely missed the track record he set an hour earlier. Martins Dukurs did not come close to this mark due to small difficulties in the second half of the track. The 0.18 second lead that the Latvian had taken into the race was not enough to make up for the quarter of a second he lost on Montgomery in the last round. With a lead of eight hundredths of a second - the second-closest Olympic skeleton decision to date - Montgomery won the fourth Canadian gold medal at the home games. Dukurs, on the other hand, missed the first gold medal that Latvia would have ever achieved at the Winter Games and won the second silver medal for it.

Reactions

Olympic champion Jon Montgomery during the award ceremony

The reactions of the athletes to the Olympic competitions varied. Some athletes who did not make it into the top twenty were already planning on until the 2014 Winter Olympics . This included, for example, the 27-year-old Spaniard Ander Mirambell , who described the competition as spectacular and was happy that on the one hand he had achieved his Olympic dream and on the other he was making more and more progress. The 45-year-old Japanese Kazuhiro Koshi , the oldest athlete ever started for Japan at the Olympics, finished twentieth and retired after the Games; He now sees his task as being to set up an organized sledging association in Japan. Placed two places in front of him was the Briton Adam Pengilly , who was dissatisfied with the entire week that had been disappointing for him. Only at the end, when it was already too late, was he able to improve. The overall World Cup third Sandro Stielicke was the youngest athlete in the entire field and for this reason he was “overjoyed” about his tenth place. Matthias Guggenberger from Austria, on the other hand, who kept his eighth place in the last run, said he was a bit disappointed. The expectations were extremely high after the fourth intermediate rank, it was not his day. On the other hand, before the Olympics, he would not have expected to be among the front runners; for the first participation in the Olympics, an eighth place is not so bad.

Kristan Bromley, finishing sixth, was disappointed with missing the podium. The Briton saw his deficits especially at the start, where he could not keep up with the best - Tretyakov and Dukurs. On the other hand, the feelings of the fifth-placed Zach Lund from the United States were mixed. In the first run he had lost a lot of time on his goal, the medal ranks, and could not make up for it completely. Nevertheless, he was quite happy with fifth place, which is okay for the Olympics. Tomass Dukurs also looked back on the competition positively, saying that his brother had more reason to be disappointed because he was able to win. After the first day of racing, he was still hoping for bronze, then Alexander Tretyakov moved away. The Russian said he had hoped until the last moment that one of the two leaders would make such a blatant mistake in the battle for victory that he could overtake and win silver or even gold. Dukurs, who actually made a mistake towards the end of his last run and thereby lost the possible Olympic title, said he was dissatisfied with the fourth run, but not with the result. Jon Montgomery, who lived up to his role as a favorite, found his situation "fascinating and unheard of," he couldn't describe it in words. But he knew that if he drove well that day he would have a chance of winning.

Women

→ Main article : 2002 Winter Olympics / Skeleton - Women

First and second run

Anja Huber from Germany achieved the bronze medal.

Date: February 18, 2010 - 4:30 p.m. (1:30 a.m. CET, 1st run) - 5:40 p.m. (2:40 a.m. CET, 2nd run)

Only 19 athletes from eleven countries competed in the women's skeleton competition instead of the 20 registered. The Japanese Nozomi Komuro was not allowed to start after a standard inspection of the sled 35 minutes before the start revealed that her racing machine was missing an inspection seal. Komuro left the competition site without comment; the next day, the Japanese national coach publicly apologized for neglecting the mistake. After the toboggan runner Aya Yasuda , Komuro was Japan’s second athlete who was not admitted to the competition due to technical deficiencies. As with the men, there had been six training runs before the competition, in which the Canadians - in particular Mellisa Hollingsworth - were the fastest. For women, too, the decision about the medals was made in four rounds over two days. In the first and third rounds, the leaders in the overall World Cup and in the interim classification started first, in the second and fourth rounds the last ones started the race earliest.

Amy Williams at the start during training on February 18th

Hollingsworth-Richards opened the first round at the Whistler Sliding Center as the best female driver of the past winter. This could only begin with a delay of about one hour due to the route temperatures being too high. The Canadian contender for victory drove a time of 54.18 seconds, with which she later finished fifth. While the second to fourth placed all had a lead of no more than four hundredths of a second, the British Amy Williams set a new track record in 53.83 seconds and held Hollingsworth-Richards 0.35 seconds away. At the same time, it also reached a new top speed of 143.3 kilometers per hour. Williams' compatriot Shelley Rudman, who was rated more strongly, fell back to eleventh place and was the first candidate to lose more than eight tenths of a second. Second after the first quarter of the competition was Hollingsworth-Richards' teammate Amy Gough, who had already set good times in practice. In the places behind were two Germans with Kerstin Szymkowiak and Anja Huber. Although Huber started fastest, he lost almost 0.4 seconds to Amy Williams on the track. The third German Marion Trott and the Swiss Olympic champion from 2006, Maya Pedersen-Bieri, who simultaneously took seventh position, fell further behind.

Kerstin Szymkowiak moved up to the silver rank in the second run and kept it until the end of the competition.

In the second run, which began at 5:40 p.m. local time, there was a clear gradation right from the start. The seven slowest athletes of the first round again reached the last seven ranks, so that there was a gap of 1.75 seconds between twelfth Maya Pedersen-Bieri and 14th place. This time gap was greater than the one that separated Pedersen-Bieri from first place. The last third also included the Canadian Michelle Kelly , who was considered better in advance , and who found it frustrating to make so many mistakes on her home track. On the other hand, Shelley Rudman, eleventh after the first run, caught up and improved by four positions. The British woman was nevertheless not satisfied; It couldn't go worse than in the first run, and in the second run she couldn't drive as usual. Other athletes, including the Swiss Pedersen-Bieri and the German Marion Trott, performed poorly and fell behind Rudman. Of the seven best athletes, five were about the same speed, their times differing by only a tenth of a second. Only Amy Gough, initially runner-up, fell back significantly after the second run. She lost almost 0.7 seconds to the leaders and saw the cause in the fact that she was driving too aggressively. As a result, the sled got stuck too much in the ice and the speed decreased. With this exception, there were no changes at the top. Amy Williams maintained her lead, the new runner-up Kerstin Szymkowiak showed the best second run, but was only able to make up two hundredths of a second on Williams. In addition to her team colleague Gough, Mellisa Hollingsworth also just overtook Anja Huber and took third place.

Unlike the men, no preliminary decision had been made after the first two runs. Four athletes were placed within half a second behind and had a chance to win. This also included co-favorite Mellisa Hollingsworth, who was disappointed with her third place. However, you can still catch up a few tenths of a second on this route, so the race is still close. British rider Williams, leading 0.3 seconds, said she made mistakes, but so did everyone else. Now she will analyze the race on video and try to correct her weak points. Shortly after the first day of competition, the US team protested against their leadership: the British woman's helmet had unauthorized wind deflectors. The objection was rejected on the grounds that the deflectors were an integral part of the helmet.

Third and fourth runs

space	country	sportswoman	Time (min)
1	GBR	Amy Williams	3: 35.64
2	GER	Kerstin Szymkowiak	3: 36.20
3	GER	Anja Huber	3: 36.36
4th	United States	Noelle Pikus-Pace	3: 36.46
5	CAN	Mellisa Hollingsworth	3: 36.60
6th	GBR	Shelley Rudman	3: 36.69
7th	CAN	Amy Gough	3: 37.01
8th	GER	Marion Trott	3: 37.11
9	SUI	Maya Pedersen-Bieri	3: 37.51
10	OUT	Emma Lincoln-Smith	3: 37.63

Date: February 19, 2010 - 3:45 p.m. (0:45 a.m. CET, 3rd run) - 4:55 p.m. (1:55 a.m. CET, 4th run)

In contrast to the men's competition, the field was not reduced again on the second day of the race; so it stayed with the number of starters of 19 athletes. The third run was opened by the British leader Amy Williams, who further secured her top position with a new track record of 53.68 seconds. Her lead on the new runner-up Mellisa Hollingsworth grew to more than half a second. The athletes ranked immediately behind Williams were closer together. Kerstin Szymkowiak lost a tenth of a second and her second intermediate place to Hollingsworth-Richards, but was only 0.01 seconds behind the Canadian. In the other places too, the gap was only a few tenths of a second, so that after the third run, five riders were within reach of the medals. In addition to Williams, Hollingsworth-Richards and Szymkowiak, these were the American Noelle Pikus-Pace and Szymkowiak's team-mate Anja Huber. While Pikus-Pace was able to shorten their deficit in the penultimate run, Huber fell back slightly and was now about three tenths of a second behind silver. Of the female pilots who fell further behind, the third German Marion Trott was the best, who improved from tenth to eighth place with the third-best running time. In contrast, Emma Lincoln-Smith from Australia, who had been placed sixth after the first day, fell three places back. In retrospect, she said that she had hoped for a medal before the decisive two runs, but that a mistake in the fifth corner of the third run cost her a better result.

Like the second run, the final run was started in the reverse order of the intermediate ranking. As a result, the decision was made only with the last athletes who went into the race. Before that, the knocked-off pilots completed their last Olympic round. Of these, the 2006 Olympic champion, the Swiss Maya Pedersen-Bieri, was the first to improve significantly with a time of less than 54 seconds. Thanks to this third-fastest mark of the last run she reached at least the top ten and overtook the two-time overall World Cup winner Katie Uhlaender in ninth place . The British Shelley Rudman drove even better, barely missing the course record set by her compatriot Amy Williams in 53.82 seconds. Rudman still missed the desired medal ranks in sixth place, but was able to pass Amy Gough from Canada. The last five starters were decisive for the award of gold, silver and bronze. First, Anja Huber started the race, who, according to her own statement, “had said goodbye to all medal dreams after the third run” and “just wanted to have fun” in the last run. She had a similar good time as Rudman had recently. This was enough to overtake Noelle Pikus-Pace, who started immediately afterwards. The US-American drew a disadvantage from her somewhat worse start, which she could not compensate on the track. A time almost as fast as Pikus-Pace's was enough for Kerstin Szymkowiak to keep the place in front of her team-mate Huber. Szymkowiak's medal success was thus certain - at the same time the first that a German has ever achieved in the skeleton.

Only Mellisa Hollingsworth and Amy Williams were waiting at the start. While the British had already taken a clear lead in the last run, Hollingsworth-Richards' gap on Szymkowiak was only a hundredth of a second. After a good start, this initially increased before the Canadian made several mistakes towards the middle of the run: When she drove through the long left-hand bend in Turn 6 , the acceleration forces pressed against the inner walls of the Whistler Sliding Center. The same thing happened in the next curve, the so-called Lueders Loop - there the Canadian bobsleigh pilot Pierre Lueders had already fallen during training. On turn 7 , Hollingsworth-Richards finally lost speed and dynamism due to further board contact. Overall, these mistakes cost the Canadian almost half a second, which she lost to Kerstin Szymkowiak. She crossed the finish line well behind and in the meantime fourth, which means that Anja Huber also had a medal. In contrast to Hollingsworth-Richards, Amy Williams also showed a sovereign race in the fourth and final run. With the fourth-best running time, she increased her lead a little further to 0.56 seconds and became the first British Olympic champion of these games.

Reactions

British Olympic champion Amy Williams at the award ceremony

One of the most frequently mentioned topics for the women's race was the poor performance of favorite Melissa Hollingsworth-Richards, who burst into tears at the finish and said, “I know my friends and family love me anyway. But I have to apologize to my country. So much has been invested in me. I had everything that was needed to be able to win. ”Nevertheless, at the finish she first grabbed the Canadian flag to show her compatriots that she will not give up and that she will continue to believe in future success. At the same time, she announced that she did not want to end her career with these runs and that her new goal would therefore be the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. In public, the fifth place of the contender for victory, who had often confirmed that she was not satisfied with the silver medal, and especially her statements, was seen as a worrying signal. This shows the pressure that the athletes would have borne after the launch of the Own the Podium campaign , which was to put Canada at the top of the medal table. The fact that athletes like Hollingsworth-Richards are devastated after rather disappointing performances does not correspond to the meaning of the games. The Province newspaper commentator Ed Willisis said, “Someone should apologize for what is happening here. But it's not our athletes. ”US rider Katie Uhlaender, who came in 11th below expectations, said she was delighted that Hollingsworth-Richards had fallen off the podium. She strongly criticized the Canadian organizers for not liking the way they cut the ice.

Other athletes expressed the opposite about the route. Uhlaender's team-mate Noelle Pikus-Pace said the course was “unbelievable” and “as smooth as a water slide”. Anja Huber also said she loved this run. In addition, she is "super happy" that she has won a medal. Her team colleague Kerstin Szymkowiak also thought that the silver medal was “a nice reward for all the effort”. The surprising gold medalist Amy Williams, who was recognized by many competitors as the best athlete in the field, initially stated that she could not believe it yet; it didn't click yet. Everything came together perfectly at the right time. She started without pressure because it was a success for her to be at the games.

Resignations

Jeff Pain ended his career.

Since the Olympic Games are generally regarded as the highlight of the respective Olympic Games , athletes often end their careers after the Games. After Vancouver 2010, several skeleton pilots who had previously celebrated major successes resigned. These include the Canadian Jeff Pain , who won the 2006 Olympic silver medal behind his compatriot Duff Gibson. The 45-year-old Japanese Kazuhiro Koshi, who had triumphed twice in the World Cup, also announced his resignation after finishing twentieth in his third Winter Olympics.

In the women's category, the 27-year-old American Noelle Pikus-Pace resigned, who narrowly missed the Olympic qualification in 2006 and only managed to miss a medal by a tenth of a second in the last race of her career in 2010. Nevertheless, the American was extremely satisfied with the Olympic races and drew the conclusion for her career: “It was a long way here, I missed Turin, was run over by a bobsleigh and had a baby. But I couldn't be happier about what happened in the last two days. ”Maya Pedersen-Bieri was ten years older than Pikus-Pace. She became Olympic champion in 2006 and has been one of the best athletes in the World Cup since 1997. As announced before the Olympic Games, she too resigned in order to concentrate on her family life and to work as a teacher. At short notice, silver medalist Kerstin Szymkowiak announced the end of her career. The German, who wanted to finish her twelve-year sports studies, said she was using the high point of her career to finish it with full satisfaction. The decision is made easier because she has osteoarthritis in both legs and has not yet been marketed optimally.

Web links

Commons : Skeleton at the 2010 Winter Olympics  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Skeleton at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Official results (PDF; 1.2 MB)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Martin Schwarz: Olympic qualification bobsleigh / skeleton is finished - lists of participants have been corrected on live-wintersport.com. Released January 19, 2010. Accessed March 3, 2010.
2. ↑ ^{a b} FIBT RANKING Skeleton Men (2009/10) ( Memento from February 3, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 517 kB) and FIBT RANKING Skeleton Women (2009/10) ( Memento from February 3, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 937 kB) on fibt.com. Retrieved March 3, 2010.
3. ↑ Welsh slider Chris Type reveals Winter Olympic blow on news.bbc.co.uk. Released February 2, 2010. Accessed March 3, 2010.
4. ↑ Gläßer's homepage
5. ↑ sid : Virgin Islands at the skeleton without starting permission on focus.de. Released February 14, 2010. Accessed March 3, 2010.
6. ^ ^{A b} Brian Cazeneuve: Medal Picks ( Memento from February 6, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) on sportsillustrated.com. Retrieved March 3, 2010.
7. ↑ Canada hopes for first home gold on olympia.ard.de. Released January 15, 2010. Accessed March 3, 2010.
8. ↑ ^{a b} Johann Reinhardt: Preview of the Olympic Games Skeleton: Canadians as favorites on live-wintersport.com. Released February 18, 2010. Accessed March 3, 2010.
9. ^ SBSV : Preview of the skeleton competitions on live-wintersport.com. Released February 18, 2010. Accessed March 3, 2010.
10. ↑ dpa : Skeletonis: In a pack of three for the first medal on gea.de. Released February 17, 2010. Retrieved March 3, 2010.
11. ↑ Van Wees: Rodelen dan skeleton gevaarlijker. In: NU.nl. Sportweek, February 12, 2010, accessed February 26, 2016 . 
12. ↑ ^{a b} Susanne Rohlfing: Head over into happiness. In: Spiegel Online . February 20, 2010, accessed March 3, 2010 . 
13. ↑ Hollingsworth, Montgomery Solidify Favorite Status in Skeleton on fibt.com. Released February 18, 2010. Accessed March 3, 2010.
14. ↑ ^{a b} Guggenberger fourth at the skeleton halftime. oe24, February 19, 2010, accessed February 6, 2018 . 
15. ↑ Howard Bryant: Lund eyes bronze in men's skeleton on espn.go.com. Released February 19, 2010. Accessed March 3, 2010.
16. ↑ Men's Heat 2: Schedule and Results: Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics at vancouver2010.com. Retrieved March 3, 2010.
17. ↑ Kiwi crocked in skeleton ( Memento from March 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) on ninemsn.com.au. Released February 20, 2010. Retrieved March 3, 2010.
18. ↑ Mihira Lakshman: Canada's Douglas disqualified in men's skeleton. In: CBC Sports. February 19, 2010, accessed February 26, 2016 . 
19. ↑ Men's Heat 4: Schedule and Results: Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics at vancouver2010.com. Retrieved March 3, 2010.
20. ^ DG Marco: Mirambell quiere más skeleton on diariodesevilla.es. Released February 21, 2010. Accessed March 3, 2010.
21. ↑ Skeleton: Japanese oldie's golden dreams never die on vancouver2010.com. Released February 20, 2010. Retrieved March 3, 2010.
22. ↑ Pengilly disappointed with Olympic showing ( Memento from May 5, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) on thisisbath.co.uk. Released February 20, 2010. Retrieved March 3, 2010.
23. ↑ http://www.olympia.bundeswehr.de/portal/a/olympiabw/kcxml/04_Sj9SPykssy0xPLMnMz0vM0Y_QjzKL9443djMMAMlB2Wb6kXDRoJRUfW99X4_83FT9AP2C3IhyR0dFRQDXxCAk/delta/base64xml/L2dJQSEvUUt3QS80SVVFLzZfS18zTkg5?yw_contentURL=/01DB179000000001/W282UPKN760INFODE/content.jsp (link not available)
24. ↑ APA: Guggenberger races past medals on derstandard.at. Released February 19, 2010. Accessed March 3, 2010.
25. ↑ Winter Olympics 2010: Kristan Bromley misses out on medal in men's skeleton on telegraph.co.uk. Released February 20, 2010. Retrieved March 3, 2010.
26. ↑ Ilvars Koscinkevičs: Tomass Dukurs sašutis par brāļa kļūdu pēdējā braucienā on diena.lv. Released February 20, 2010. Retrieved March 3, 2010.
27. ↑ ^{a b} Recap: Montgomery's gold medal run on ctvolympics.ca.Retrieved March 3, 2010.
28. ↑ AP : Gold medal showings drip with drama on washingtonpost.com. Released February 21, 2010. Accessed March 3, 2010.
29. ↑ ^{a b} Owen Houlihan: OLYMPIC SKELETON BOB: Improving Rudman faces uphill battle for medal on thisiswiltshire.co.uk. Released February 19, 2010. Accessed March 3, 2010.
30. ↑ AFP: Skeleton: US protest at Williams helmet thrown out on vancouver2010.com. Released February 18, 2010. Accessed March 3, 2010.
31. ↑ Women's Heat 2: Schedule and Results: Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics at vancouver2010.com. Retrieved March 3, 2010.
32. ↑ Will Brodie: Australians midfield in skeleton on smh.com.au. Released February 20, 2010. Retrieved March 3, 2010.
33. ↑ dpa: Double medal for German skeleton women ( memento of February 21, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) on newsticker.sueddeutsche.de. Released February 20, 2010. Retrieved March 3, 2010.
34. ↑ Hollingsworth wants to come back for 2014. In: The Canadian Press. February 21, 2010, archived from the original on May 15, 2012 ; Retrieved March 3, 2010 . 
35. ↑ Women's Heat 4: Schedule and Results: Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics at vancouver2010.com. Retrieved March 3, 2010.
36. ↑ Hollingsworth takes blame. Montreal Gazette, February 22, 2010, accessed February 6, 2018 . 
37. ↑ Florian Haupt: Not the Yankees again! on welt.de. Released February 24, 2010. Accessed March 3, 2010.
38. ↑ dpa: Media: Celebrating Canadians save «debacle» games on augsburger-allgemeine.de. Released February 24, 2010. Accessed March 3, 2010.
39. ↑ ^{a b} Craig Hill: Skeleton bronze slips away from USA's Pikus-Pace. In: KansasCity.com. February 19, 2010, archived from the original on February 25, 2010 ; Retrieved March 3, 2010 . 
40. ^ Gregor Derichs: Szymkowiak and Huber head over to medal luck. In: DerWesten.de. February 22, 2010, archived from the original on February 26, 2010 ; Retrieved March 3, 2010 . 
41. ↑ APA: Williams class for itself on derstandard.at. Released February 20, 2010. Retrieved March 3, 2010.
42. ↑ Joshua Williams: The last race of Japan's skeleton pioneer. In: Examiner.com . February 21, 2010, accessed February 26, 2016 . 
43. ↑ AP: Williams wins Olympic skeleton gold for Britain on newsvine.com. Released February 19, 2010. Accessed March 3, 2010.
44. ↑ SBSV: Maya Pedersen announced her resignation at live-wintersport.com after the Olympic Games . Released February 21, 2010. Accessed March 3, 2010.
45. ↑ dpa: Skeleton-Duo: Resignation, wedding and speed camera photo ( memento from August 11, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) on suedkurier.de. Released February 21, 2010. Accessed March 3, 2010.

This article was added to the list of excellent articles on April 2, 2010 in this version .