"That's pretty much the right answer any sane, reasonable person would give because skeleton is among the most bizarre and frightening of Olympic sports, one which requires an athlete to lie face down and head-first on a small sled atop a sheet of rock-hard ice, then plummet down a twisting, banked mile-long chute at more than 80 miles an hour."
"But the coaching staff for the U.S. skeleton team refused to let fear and logic keep her from what they thought was her destiny. And 10 years later Ro doesn't just love the sport, she has a chance to become just the second American woman in two decades to medal in the event at the Olympic Games when the skeleton competition begins at the Cortina Sliding Centre on Friday."
Mystique Ro is a U.S. athlete who transitioned from track to skeleton. She is allergic to ice and hates roller coasters but competes in skeleton, racing head-first down icy tracks at more than 80 mph with only a helmet for protection. Her first run provoked screaming and she initially rejected the sport, but coaches encouraged her to continue. Ten years later she embraced skeleton and won silver at the 2025 world championships. She aims to become only the second American woman in twenty years to earn an Olympic skeleton medal. She will race in the individual event and in the Olympic-debut mixed team event with Austin Florian at Cortina.
Read at Los Angeles Times
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]