SKELETON SLEDDING

also called Cresta Sledding, winter sport in which the skeleton sled, or Cresta, consisting of steel runners fastened to a platform chassis with sliding seat, called a toboggan, is ridden in a headfirst, prone position, like the steel-runnered sled that is common in North America. Skeleton sledding has been practiced exclusively on the 1,327-yard- (1,213-metre-) long Cresta Run, built in 1884 at Sankt Moritz, Switz. Annual Grand National championships have been contested on this course since 1885. Competitive speeds generally average nearly 50 miles (80 kilometres) per hour. This sport, administered by the Sankt Moritz Tobogganing Club, was included twice in the Olympic Winter Games, in 1928 and 1948, each time at Sankt Moritz.