BOB SKELETON – THE FASTEST GROWING OLYMPIC WINTER SPORT

Hurtling down an ice chute at 80 mph with your chin millimetres from the ground is both to know fear and to banish it. As adrenaline rushes go, it’s up there with the best, but with the essential difference that success can take you through to the Olympics.

A British athlete (Alex Coomber) won the women’s bronze medal at Park City in 2002 – the first time bob skeleton featured in the games - and Kristan Bromley has since won the World Cup series and European Championships. We have World Champions at Junior World and World Student level and won medals in 2010 in Vancouver, as a result of our Talent ID programme and performance pathway.

The British Bob Skeleton Association (BBSKA) is the governing body of the sport in the UK and runs the Talent ID programme each year, designed to pick the best eight from three hundred candidates, between the age of 16 and 24. They get an introduction to the sport and training methods, an assessment of athletic ability and, for those short listed, a chance to try out on the state of the art push track facility at University of Bath, where the BBSKA is based as part of Team Bath.

The competition season starts with national selection races in October and continues with seven World Cup events culminating in the World Championships at the end of February, or, once every four years, the Olympic Winter Games. There is also a Europa Cup circuit and an Americas Cup circuit.

However bob skeleton is also a great recreational sport. Derived from the Cresta Run in St Moritz, it is practised on 16 ice tracks around the World and club races are held regularly throughout the season.

How do you get started? – visit the British Bob Skeleton website where you will find an application proforma for the appropriate level of interest. We will then contact you and tell you about training courses and licence arrangements.

Good luck and enjoy!

Further information can be obtained by contacting the British Bob Skeleton Association:

Website: thebbsa.co.uk

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