Intercontinental Cup Skeleton

This past Thursday, Candy and I had the opportunity to volunteer in Lake Placid at the Skeleton event. I have always enjoyed working with North Country Ministires, because they exist to share the love of Christ with those who live, visit, work and play in the North Country/Adirondack Mountains Region. This was Candy's first time volunteering at a winter event, and although I believe she had fun - I also believe she is now more firmly resolved to never become an athlete in an outdoor winter sport.



Skeleton is an adrenaline packed sport where athletes slide head first down an iced bobsled track with their arms back at speeds reaching up to 80 mph. There are no seat belts, no engine, and no brakes. Make no bones about it.

Skeleton athletes apply pressure with their shoulders and knees to torque the fiberglass body of the sled to steer. Skeleton athletes need to have a strong push by exploding off the starting block and sprinting on ice while pushing the sled for the first 30-meters before loading onto the sled.

Required equipment includes a sled, runners, helmet, speed suit, and spikes. Athletes must be aggressive and powerful at the start; yet graceful and calm once loaded onto the sled in order to navigate the course.

First, Candy and I helped the officials to wipe down the runners on each of the athletes sleds to ensure that they had not been tampered with, and were free of any oils. Our next task was to make sure the women knew when they needed to come out from their warming area and get ready to slide. We also swept the ice track after each sledder, and took temperatures of the air, ice, and a sled runner every fifteen minutes. It was a cold day on Mt. VanHovenburg, and we were very thankful to the Mills for providing us with hand and feet warmers!



Although this video is not of the event that we attended, and it's not in English - it gives the best and longest example/shot of the start line where we were, and what we saw (notice the guys with the brooms?). Standing at the start line, we saw a lot of jumping athletes (trying to stay warm despite the lack of warm clothing that they threw off at us), some praying ones, and heard a lot of encouraging words in different languages. Prayerfully our smiles and Christ-like attitude encouraged everyone we were around, because that's why we were there.