CHRISTOF STACHE/AFP/GETTY IMAGES (SKI JUMPING ) ;
BOB MARTIN (SKELETON); ERICK W. RASCO (CURLING)
How do you
slow down?
Well, you don’t. In skeleton,
competitors lie down on the
sled with their chins an inch
or two off the surface of the ice. They steer by
making subtle movements with their knees and
shoulders as they reach speeds of more than
80 mph. It’s a harrowing ordeal, and, if things
start to go sideways, there’s not much a rider can
do. There are no brakes—and if there were, using
them would eliminate any chance a rider had of
winning a medal, because the margin of victory is
usually a couple of hundredths of a second.melts those pebbles. So sweeping can make a stone
go farther and curl less than it normally would,
meaning that an imperfectly thrown rock can still
end up exactly where it was intended.Skeleton
Curling
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