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 is the sledding sport at the Olympics that features the competitor facing head-first down the track. The competitor lies on their stomach, face down. It was a part of the 1928 and 1948 Winter Olympics, then didn't return until 2002. The sport of skeleton is named after the first metal sleds.

Here's a look at the differences between bobsled, luge and skeleton heading into the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics.

The former college track and field athlete will make her Winter Olympic debut next month with the U.S. Skeleton team

To hear Mystique Ro talk about the first time she went on a skeleton run is to wonder why on earth the former track athlete stuck with one of the wilder Winter Olympic sports — one that involves hurtling face-first down an icy track at 80 to 90 mph on a thin fiberglass sled.

Former U.S. skeleton athlete John Daly was once asked why anyone would decide to hurl themselves, head first, 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 ...

Canada’s bobsleigh, luge and skeleton athletes have been studying the icy Olympic track at the Milan Cortina Winter Games track meticulously well ahead of their races.

But when Vice President J.D. Vance appeared on the stadium’s big screen during the kickoff of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Games on Friday, the unmistakable sound of boos and jeers broke out among the crowd of 65,