Skeleton at the 2010 Winter Olympics – Women's
Women's Skeleton at the XXI Olympic Winter Games | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Venue | Whistler Sliding Centre | ||||||||||||
Dates | 18–19 February | ||||||||||||
Competitors | 20 from 12 nations | ||||||||||||
Winning time | 3:35.64 | ||||||||||||
Medalists | |||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
Skeleton at the 2010 Winter Olympics | ||
---|---|---|
men | women | |
The women's skeleton event at the 2010 Winter Olympics took place at the Whistler Sliding Centre on 18–19 February.[1] The competition was won by British athlete Amy Williams, who set new course records for the track on her first and third runs. Williams, who had never before won a World Cup or World Championship event, became the first British athlete to win a solo Winter Olympic gold medal in 30 years. German sliders Kerstin Szymkowiak and Anja Huber won the silver and bronze medals respectively. Williams' teammate Shelley Rudman, who had won the silver medal at the 2006 Winter Olympics, and Canadian Mellisa Hollingsworth, both of whom had been expected to be in medal contention, were disappointed.
Williams' victory was not without controversy, as the United States and Canada filed complaints with the judges related to Williams' helmet. However, judges ruled that ridges in her helmet did not violate
Logistics
Track
The
Rules and description of competition
Rules for the Olympic skeleton competitions were set by the FIBT and the International Olympic Committee (IOC). They entrusted four to seven officials with making decisions regarding competition rules: one or two technical delegates, a jury president, two jury members, and two optional jury assistants. These decisions were implemented and enforced by a race director, to whom the overall responsibility for running the competition was given. Under the rules, competitors were guaranteed a minimum of six official training runs in the days prior to the competition. The competition itself consisted of four heats, with the starting order of athletes determined by their FIBT rankings prior to the start of the Games. Athletes began their runs on their sleds at a starting block, ran briefly while holding their sleds, and then laid on their stomachs on the sleds through the remainder of the course. Athletes were ranked by the speed of their times between their start and when they crossed the finish line at the bottom of the track.[3]
Preview
Much of the speculation about potential medal winners before the Games focused on athletes from Great Britain, the United States, and Canada. Athletes from German-speaking countries had traditionally been dominant in the sliding sports, luge and bobsleigh, but following the re-introduction of skeleton, they had not been as strongly competitive in the new sport.[4] Mellisa Hollingsworth of Canada, the defending Olympic bronze medalist, won the 2009–10 Skeleton World Cup,[5] and was considered a strong contender if not the favorite to win.[6] British athlete Shelley Rudman won the only British medal at the 2006 Winter Olympics with her silver in skeleton, and her bronze medal at the European Championships just prior to the Games kept her name in media previews of the Olympic event. Her countrywoman Amy Williams, however, finished outside of the medal places in both the World Cup, in which she placed fifth, and the European Championships, in which she placed sixth.[7] American Noelle Pikus-Pace had not been able to compete in the 2006 Games after a runaway bobsleigh had broken her leg.[8]
A number of other athletes had the potential to win medals by virtue of previous strong finishes in international competition. Switzerland's
Standing records
While the IOC does not consider skeleton times eligible for Olympic records, the FIBT does maintain records for both the start and a complete run at each track it competes. These records were set during the test event for the 2010 Games on 5 February 2009.[11]
Type | Date | Athlete | Time |
---|---|---|---|
Start | 5 February 2009 | Anja Huber (GER) | 4.97 |
Track | 5 February 2009 | Mellisa Hollingsworth (CAN) | 54.81 |
Qualifying athletes
On 20 January 2010, the FIBT announced the teams which had qualified for the 2010 Games,[13][14] the quotas being subsequently updated on 26 January 2010.[15][16] The athletes who qualified for the women's event were:[17]
- Desiree Bjerke (NOR) (27, IBSF World Ranking as 17 February 2010)[18]
- Amy Gough (CAN) (9)
- Melissa Hoar (AUS) (11)
- Mellisa Hollingsworth (CAN) (1)
- Anja Huber (GER) (8)
- Michelle Kelly (CAN) (13)
- Nozomi Komuro (JPN) (24)
- Emma Lincoln-Smith (AUS) (14)
- Maria Marinela Mazilu (ROU) (42)
- Maya Pedersen (SUI) (10)
- Noelle Pikus-Pace (USA) (6)
- Shelley Rudman (GBR) (2)
- Tionette Stoddard (NZL) (19)
- Kerstin Szymkowiak (GER) (3)
- Marion Trott (GER) (4)
- Svetlana Trunova (RUS) (12)
- Katie Uhlaender (USA) (7)
- Amy Williams (GBR) (5)
- Elena Yudina (RUS) (20)
- Costanza Zanoletti (ITA) (37)
Competition
The first run start order was released on the afternoon of 17 February 2010.
The United States, Canada and Germany, together with two unnamed teams, lodged a protest with officials following Williams' successful first day of competition. The protest alleged that her helmet was illegal, as ridges in it might give her an unfair aerodynamic advantage. In accordance with competition rules, the jury of officials inspected the helmet, and rejected the protest. Their grounds for doing so were that the ridges in the helmet were not a separate piece affixed to the helmet, expressly banned by FIBT rules, but rather an integral part of the helmet, which made the helmet legal.[21] A second protest, filed jointly by the US and Canada on the 19th, was also rejected.[22]
The next day, in her third run, Williams again set a new course record, 53.68 seconds, and won the final run as well to secure the gold medal. Williams became the first British sportsperson to win an individual
Results
TR - Track Record (in italics for previous marks). Top finish in each run is in boldface.
Rank | Bib | Athlete | Country | Run 1[17] | Run 2[24] | Run 3[25] | Run 4[26] | Total | Behind |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
5 | Amy Williams | Great Britain | 53.83 TR | 54.13 | 53.68 TR | 54.00 | 3:35.64 | +0.00 | |
3 | Kerstin Szymkowiak | Germany | 54.15 TR | 54.11 | 53.91 | 54.03 | 3:36.20 | +0.56 | |
8 | Anja Huber | Germany | 54.17 | 54.21 | 54.10 | 53.88 | 3:36.36 | +0.72 | |
4 | 6 | Noelle Pikus-Pace | United States | 54.30 | 54.21 | 53.88 | 54.07 | 3:36.46 | +0.82 |
5 | 1 | Mellisa Hollingsworth | Canada | 54.18 TR | 54.17 | 53.81 | 54.44 | 3:36.60 | +0.96 |
6 | 2 | Shelley Rudman | Great Britain | 54.66 | 54.26 | 53.95 | 53.82 | 3:36.69 | +1.05 |
7 | 9 | Amy Gough | Canada | 54.14 | 54.78 | 53.92 | 54.17 | 3:37.01 | +1.37 |
8 | 4 | Marion Trott |
Germany | 54.53 | 54.53 | 53.88 | 54.17 | 3:37.11 | +1.47 |
9 | 10 | Maya Pedersen-Bieri | Switzerland | 54.53 | 54.83 | 54.24 | 53.91 | 3:37.51 | +1.87 |
10 | 14 | Emma Lincoln-Smith | Australia | 54.28 | 54.41 | 54.54 | 54.40 | 3:37.63 | +1.99 |
11 | 7 | Katie Uhlaender | United States | 54.51 | 54.53 | 54.54 | 54.35 | 3:37.93 | +2.29 |
12 | 11 | Melissa Hoar | Australia | 54.73 | 54.48 | 54.48 | 54.53 | 3:38.22 | +2.58 |
13 | 13 | Michelle Kelly | Canada | 54.73 | 55.49 | 55.56 | 55.01 | 3:40.79 | +5.15 |
14 | 15 | Tionette Stoddard | New Zealand | 55.85 | 55.93 | 55.02 | 54.89 | 3:41.69 | +6.05 |
15 | 19 | Costanza Zanoletti | Italy | 55.48 | 55.63 | 55.38 | 55.31 | 3:41.80 | +6.16 |
16 | 12 | Svetlana Trunova | Russia | 56.47 | 55.32 | 55.23 | 55.17 | 3:42.19 | +6.55 |
17 | 18 | Desiree Bjerke | Norway | 56.48 | 55.28 | 55.34 | 55.26 | 3:42.36 | +6.72 |
18 | 16 | Elena Yudina |
Russia | 55.42 | 56.06 | 55.54 | 55.77 | 3:42.79 | +7.15 |
19 | 20 | Maria Marinela Mazilu | Romania | 57.10 | 57.03 | 58.14 | 57.65 | 3:49.92 | +14.28 |
17 | Nozomi Komuro | Japan | DSQ |
References
- ^ a b c "2010 Winter Olympics Skeleton schedule". Vancouver 2010. Archived from the original on 14 May 2010. Retrieved 21 February 2010.
- ^ "Training at The Whistler Sliding Centre". Vancouver 2010. 9 April 2008. Archived from the original on 8 April 2010. Retrieved 20 February 2010.
- ^ "International Skeleton Rules, 2009" (PDF). International Bobsleigh and Tobogganing Federation. 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 September 2012. Retrieved 20 February 2010.
- ^ "Skeleton, bobsleigh and luge: Anglos sliding into Vancouver contention". Agence France-Presse. Vancouver 2010. 18 January 2010. Archived from the original on 9 April 2010. Retrieved 21 February 2010.
- ^ "FIBT Skeleton World Cup final women's rankings". International Bobsleigh and Tobogganing Federation. Archived from the original on 8 January 2012. Retrieved 21 February 2010.
- ^ "Alberta racer Mellisa Hollingsworth favourite to win skeleton gold at Olympics". Yahoo! Sports. 3 February 2010. Retrieved 31 March 2010.
- ^ "Skeleton: Rudman bags world bronze". Agence France-Presse. Vancouver 2010. 22 January 2010. Archived from the original on 7 August 2012. Retrieved 21 February 2010.
- ^ a b c "Skeleton: Golden Williams ends Britain's 30-year wait". Agence France-Presse. Vancouver 2010. 19 February 2010. Archived from the original on 20 February 2010. Retrieved 21 February 2010.
- ^ "2006 Winter Olympics women's skeleton results". International Bobsleigh and Tobogganing Federation. Archived from the original on 15 July 2012. Retrieved 21 February 2010.
- ^ "FIBT World Championships 2009 women's skeleton results". International Bobsleigh and Tobogganing Federation. Archived from the original on 2 October 2011. Retrieved 21 February 2010.
- ^ a b "Whistler Sliding Centre World Cup 5 February 2009 women's skeleton results". International Bobsleigh and Tobogganing Federation. Archived from the original on 18 August 2010. Retrieved 21 February 2010.
- ^ "FIBT Skeleton World Cup Igls 22 January 2010 women's results". International Bobsleigh and Tobogganing Federation. Archived from the original on 13 September 2012. Retrieved 21 February 2010.
- ^ FIBT Announces Olympic Qualifying Quotas. at the Fédération Internationale de Bobsleigh et de Tobogganing (20 January 2010 article Retrieved 21 January 2010.)
- ^ "FIBT skeleton women quotas for the 2010 Winter Olympics" (PDF). International Bobsleigh and Tobogganing Federation. Retrieved 21 February 2010.
- ^ Olympic Quotas Updated After Reallocation at the Fédération Internationale de Bobsleigh et de Tobogganing (26 January 2010 article Retrieved 27 January 2010.)
- ^ "26 January 2010 article on FIBT allocation for women's skeleton at the 2010 Winter Olympics" (PDF). International Bobsleigh and Tobogganing Federation. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 January 2014. Retrieved 21 February 2010.
- ^ a b c "2010 Winter Olympics 18 February 2010 skeleton women run 1 results". Vancouver 2010. 18 February 2010. Archived from the original on 8 April 2010. Retrieved 21 February 2010.
- ^ "Women's Skeleton IBSF Ranking 2009/10". International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation. Retrieved 25 April 2016.
- ^ 2010 Winter Olympics 17 February 2010 Skeleton women's start. Archived 8 April 2010 at the Wayback Machine - Retrieved 18 February 2010.
- ^ "Skeleton (Ladies) : Record-breaking Williams eyes British breakthrough". Agence France-Presse. Vancouver 2010. 18 February 2010. Archived from the original on 20 February 2010. Retrieved 21 February 2010.
- ^ "Skeleton: US protest at Williams helmet thrown out". Agence France-Presse. Vancouver 2010. 18 February 2010. Archived from the original on 25 October 2009. Retrieved 21 February 2010.
{{cite news}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ^ Reynolds, Tim (20 February 2010). "FIBT denies 2 protests over Williams' skeleton win". Yahoo! Sports. Associated Press. Retrieved 21 February 2010.
- ^ a b Williams Wins Women's Skeleton Gold Medal. at the Fédération Internationale de Bobsleigh et de Tobogganing (20 February 2010 article Retrieved 20 February 2010.)
- ^ "2010 Winter Olympics 18 February 2010 skeleton women run 2 results". Vancouver 2010. 18 February 2010. Archived from the original on 8 April 2010. Retrieved 21 February 2010.
- ^ "2010 Winter Olympics 19 February 2010 skeleton women run 3 results". Vancouver 2010. 19 February 2010. Archived from the original on 8 April 2010. Retrieved 21 February 2010.
- ^ "2010 Winter Olympics 19 February 2010 skeleton women run 4 results". Vancouver 2010. 19 February 2010. Archived from the original on 8 April 2010. Retrieved 21 February 2010.
External links
- 2010 Winter Olympics results: Women's (heat 1) Archived 8 April 2010 at the Wayback Machine, from http://www.vancouver2010.com/ Archived 25 October 2009 at the Wayback Machine; retrieved 2010-02-18.
- 2010 Winter Olympics results: Women's (heat 2) Archived 8 April 2010 at the Wayback Machine, from http://www.vancouver2010.com/ Archived 25 October 2009 at the Wayback Machine; retrieved 2010-02-18.
- 2010 Winter Olympics results: Women's (heat 3) Archived 8 April 2010 at the Wayback Machine, from http://www.vancouver2010.com/ Archived 25 October 2009 at the Wayback Machine; retrieved 2010-02-19.
- 2010 Winter Olympics results: Women's (heat 4) Archived 8 April 2010 at the Wayback Machine, from http://www.vancouver2010.com/ Archived 25 October 2009 at the Wayback Machine; retrieved 2010-02-19.