Skeleton is an individual sport where competitors slide head-first down an ice ramp on a simple sled. The competitor that reaches the bottom of the ramp in the quickest amount of time is the winner.

Skeleton is one of the oldest competitive winter sports and is a sport in which participants ride a one-person sled in a prone, head-first position down an ice track. It differs from luge in riding position; in the luge the rider drives the sled from a supine, feet-first position. Skeleton riders have been clocked at speeds of 80 mph. This Olympic sport is known in some parts of the world as tobogganing. It takes its name from the stripped-down sled, which originally was a bare frame, like a skeleton.

The goal of skeleton is the ride a skeleton down an ice track in the fastest time.

Olympic rules for skeleton state that skeleton competition must use the same track as bobsleigh and luge. A run begins with a running "push" phase (typically 25 to 40 metres). After pushing, the athlete dives onto the sled and descends the track. Athletes must lie prone, facing downhill, with arms at their sides. Only the force produced by the athlete and the force of gravity are permitted to propel the skeleton. The skeleton must be steered by movements of the athlete's body

The sport of skeleton can be traced back to the late 19th century. English soldiers in Switzerland constructed a toboggan track between the cities of Davos and Klosters in 1882. While toboggan tracks certainly were not uncommon at the time, the added challenge of curves and bends in the Swiss track distinguished it from those of Canada and the United States. As the popularity of the sport grew in Europe, skeleton evolved into the sport recognized today. In 1892, the sled was transformed by L.P. Child, an Englishman. The newly designed bare-bones sled resembled a human skeleton, and the sport adopted its modern name of skeleton, though it is still recognized as tobogganing in many countries.

In 1923, the Federation Internationale de Bobsleigh et de Tobogganing (FIBT) was established as the governing body of the sport. Soon afterward (1926), the International Olympic Committee declared bobsleigh and skeleton as Olympic sports and adopted the rules of the St. Mortiz run as the officially recognized Olympic rules.[1] It was not until 2002, however, that skeleton itself was added permanently to the Olympic program with the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Goggles
Helmet
Racing Speed Suit
Skeleton
Spiked Shoes

The accessibility of skeleton to amateurs may have been the catalyst for its upswing in popularity. Skeleton is a fast-moving sliding sport during which athletes experience forces up to, but not exceeding, 5Gs, a stipulation enforced by the FIBT. Given the speeds attained by riders, they are not allowed any steering or braking mechanisms. Rather, steering is managed by slight shifts of the athlete on the sled and by dragging the feet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skeleton_(sport)