Wanted: females who are fast and explosive, yet cool, calm and collected — with nerves of steel, a sense of adventure and the desire to be the best in the world. Keen observers of sport will remember a similar challenge being issued around this time two years ago as part of a daring attempt to launch Australia into the forefront of this winter sport known as skeleton. The good news — as anyone who saw the ABC broadcast of the Film Australia documentary Nerves of Steel will know — is that the project was a huge success; successful enough for the Australian Sports Commission (ASC), through the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS), and the Olympic Winter Institute of Australia, to continue up to the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010. Skeleton involves the athlete making a quick sprint running start while pushing their sled along the ice before leaping on so they are positioned head first and lying on their front. Once they are on the sled, athletes plunge headfirst down an icy track at speeds of up to 120 kilometres per hour, manoeuvring their sleds with subtle head and shoulder movements. The results of Skeleton I have been astounding. Michelle Steele finished thirteenth at the Torino Winter Olympics. Team-mate Melissa Hoar then proved the program was not a one-hit wonder by finishing first at the 2006 World Junior (u23) Championships. Skeleton II is now well underway with a group of experienced and new athletes, having just completed their first intensive training camp at the AIS in Canberra, scheduled to hit the tracks of Calgary and New york State later this month.
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