Skeleton is one of the fastest sports at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics. Here’s how the head-first sliding event works and who is competing for the U.S. (AP photo)

With the 2026 Winter Olympics underway, here's a guide on the high-speed sledding sports: luge, skeleton and bobsleigh.

Skeleton may slightly trail luge and bobsleigh in the sliding sport speed rankings but with its athletes' heads skimming only centimetres from a tunnel of ice, it creates a mix of fear and exhilaration that becomes an instant drug for many.

Skeleton made its Olympic debut at the 1928 Winter Games in Switzerland and became a permanent event in 2002 during the Games in Salt Lake City, Utah.

The British skeleton team appeal after their new helmets for the Winter Olympics are ruled unsafe.

Ski mountaineering will make its Olympic debut this year, the first winter sport to do so since 2002. Skeleton, luge, ski jumping and moguls are also getting new events.

The United States is the most successful skeleton nation in Winter Olympic history but with most of those medals now gathering dust, the arrival of the new mixed relay at Cortina is a timely opportunity to get back on the podium.

Former U.S. skeleton athlete John Daly was once asked why anyone would decide to hurl themselves, headfirst, down an ice-coated mountainside chute on a thin sled with no safety equipment other than a helmet. Daly laughed. “If I knew that, I probably ...

The governing body for the winter sport of skeleton, the International Bobsled Skeleton Federation (IBSF), has dismissed complaints that the Canadian women’s team and its coach Joe Cecchini engaged in competition manipulation at the North American Cup ...

U.S. skeleton racer Katie Uhlaender's last chance to make the Olympic field may have been lost Monday, with the Court of Arbitration for Sport saying it lacks the jurisdiction to change the result of a race that could have earned her a berth in the Milan-Cortina Winter Games.