Skeleton-Where fear meets exhilaration at 85mph

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy, Feb 6 : Skeleton may slightly trail luge and bobsleigh in the sliding sport speed rankings but with its athletes' heads skimming only centimetres from a tunnel of ice, it creates a mix of fear and exhilaration that becomes an instant drug for many.

Bobsledders have the covered protection of their machine, while lugers lead with their feet, leaving the "crazy tribe" of skeleton to literally meet the danger head first.

Even though they invariably have their first taste of the event at a slightly slower speed than the 80mph-plus of full competition, by being launched halfway down the track, the shock is still not something they forget in a hurry.

"I barely knew my own name, it was like a roller coaster that's broken," said Britain's Marcus Wyatt when he looked back on his debut.

"When you are new, the sled is taking you for a ride. You want to be here, you want to be there but you're just ping-ponging off the walls, bang, bang, bang, and you're not in control."

Wyatt says he has come up with the ideal way to help children understand what it's like when he speaks in schools. "I say to them, 'imagine your parents are driving down the motorway and I come flying past in the outside lane - getting a speeding ticket from the police'. They get it then and say "wow, yes, that is pretty fast."

Compatriot and Olympic gold medal favourite Matt Weston said he distinctly remembers his first experience after converting to the sport through a talent identification programme.

"You have no control and you’re hitting concrete walls covered in ice so that was fairly unnerving and pretty terrifying," he said.

"In the first 10 metres I thought, 'wait, I've got no brakes' so I quickly realised I'm going to the bottom whether I