So I came into the lunchroom at work in time to catch the tail end of the Super Bowl post game show, and the TV cut away to the Winter Olympics, apparently already in progress. I saw some guy (or girl, it could have been a girl) pushing the sled down the first few yards of the run, then jump into it and lie back to take the ride.
Do they ever lose control of the sled and it outpaces them, continuing down the run without a rider? Because that would be hilarious.
Somehow you conflated luge and skeleton. In skeleton, the athletes push the sled in front of them running as a start, but they don’t lie back, but face front. In luge, the athletes start sitting by pushing themselves from fixed handles, making some kind of paddle moves with their knuckles (there are metal cramps on their gloves to support those moves) and then lie back on the sled.
What you were watching must have been skeleton, not luge. Skeleton uses the same start as bobsled, and there are grooves cut in the ice to keep the bobsleds straight while the athletes are pushing them. The runners on a skeleton are closer together than a bobsled, so only one runner is in a groove. I’ve never seen the sled get away from the rider at the start, but I have seen it come out of the groove before the rider jumps on.
It’s also possible for the rider to have an accident farther down the track and get separated from their sled. In luge, I believe the time counts as long as you’re still holding your sled as you cross the finish; not sure if skeleton has the same rule.
And it’s one of my dreams to slide a curling stone down a bobsled track.
Actually what they were showing this evening was monobob, a one-person bobsled. A new event this Olympics.
Ask, and you shall receive…
