That domination largely continues in luge and bobsleigh – but in skeleton the Americans, Canadians and the British are making a name for themselves as they hurl themselves down icy, twisting, banked tracks in gravity-powered sleds.

If, at least for the women, skeleton is the new kid on the block it actually made its Olympic debut far earlier, in 1928.

Two years earlier the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had officially declared skeleton as an Olympic sport and Jennison Heaton promptly gave the United States gold.

Four-man bobsleigh appeared in the first Winter Games in 1924 (five-men in 1928) and the two-man variant followed in 1932, though the events were not included in 1960, while luge came in at the 1964 Games in Innsbruck.

Women made their Olympic skeleton entrance in pairs in 2002 at the Salt Lake Games, US star Tristan Gale landing gold before Swiss Maya Pedersen succeeded her four years later.

Taking silver in 2006 was Briton Shelley Rudman, who is now one of two Britons ranked in the world top ten ahead of fifth-placed Amy Williams, another regular top ten World Cup finisher.

Rudman ousted top-ranked Mellisa Hollingworth in the World Cup race at St Moritz last week to show her form with Williams fourth.

“This season has all been about improving every performance to peak ready for the Olympics and things are going well,” said Rudman.

Returning to the US men’s skeleton line-up after missing out in 2006 after testing positive for banned substance finasteride, a medication used to treat hair loss, is 2007 world champion Zach Lund.

US bobsleigh hopes are high in the shape of Steven Holcomb and John Napier, the world’s top-ranked four-man drivers.

Holcomb and his push team of Justin Olsen, Steve Mesler and Curt Tomasevicz will drive the USA I sled in Vancouver with Napier, Chuck Berkeley, Chris Fogt and Steve Langton in USA II.

Two-man lineups include Holcomb and Tomasevicz, Napier and Langton with Kohn’s second yet to be decided.

The women’s lineup features three pairs, Shauna Rohbock and Michelle Rzepka, Erin Pac and Elana Meyers and Bree Schaaf and Emily Azevedo.

Elsewhere, reigning two-and four-man bob champion Andre Lange of Germany is clearly one to watch as he bids for a hat-trick in the latter category.

In luge, look no further for now than Italian Armin “il cannibale” Zoeggeler, going for a third straight gold, though Russian World Cup challenger Albert Demtschenko and German world champ Felix Loch will run him close.

Among the “Doppelsitzer” (luge pairs) German World Cup leaders Andre Florschutz and Torsten Wustlich are hoping that glory beckons.

Michelle Bartleman is an accomplished skeleton athlete who has been competing for Canada for three seasons. As a 2014 Olympic Winter Games hopeful, she’s a passionate and busy person, splitting her time between training, web and graphic design, blogging, competition, volunteering, travel, fun, friends and flying — yes flying.

Currently living in Squamish BC, she is a proud Canadian who has come to understand the importance of French/English bilingualism. “I am a big supporter and enthusiastic proponent of Canadian bilingualism, a subject that is often treated with a lot of contempt and mockery out here in Western Canada,” she writes in her blog.

Originally from Montreal, Bartleman grew up in an English-speaking home and is the oldest of four children. In her early years, her family moved to Alberta where she attended a French immersion elementary school. Growing up, she didn’t understand the full scope of her parents’ insistence on bilingualism and like most children, didn’t care for French in school.

“No English kid likes going to school in French in Alberta because, you know, it seems irrelevant. I didn’t understand why it mattered or why it was relevant,” Bartelman recounts. “My dad made me do the Concours d’art oratoire (public speaking contest) from the time I was six. So to me everything was an effort and I saw no real world relation, especially because I come from an Anglophone family.”

Despite her dad’s best efforts to enforce “French night” at home, Bartleman still didn’t get why it was so important to speak both English and French.

Around age 11, she and her family moved back to Montreal where she attended an English high school. “It’s different when you’re in Montreal once you get to high school. You go to French class in high school in Montreal and sure you might hate it, but then you go out with your friends who are French or who speak French and it translates right . . . no pun intended.”

While Bartleman went on to pursue her life’s passions, she began to understand her father’s insistence on her learning Canada’s other official language. As she travelled across the country, she noticed that a whole lot of people speak French in Canada. “I go other places in Canada and meet all these francophones and I think it’s really cool.”

As she started participating in international competition, Michelle understood the importance of her second official language even more, meeting other athletes from around the world, making friends and picking up other languages in the process!

Now Bartleman is invited to speak at major events like La journée de la francophonie, a day celebrating French-Canadian culture regardless of geographical location.

“I recently had this enlightenment, after speaking at the Jour de la francophonie where there were all these BC francophones,” she says. “I had the realization that I’m their counterpart. I’m an anglophone Quebecer, an anglo-Québecoise.”

As guest speaker, Bartleman delivered her speech in French. Some other speakers were unable to deliver their speeches in Canada’s other official language. She describes this in her blog: “I couldn’t understand why the francophones, on their day, were still pandering to the anglos. And then it struck me. The BC francophones at this event get it. They understand the give and take needed to perpetuate understanding and appreciation between different cultures. They realize that, even on their day, they need to respect and accommodate anglophones in they same way that they as francophones hope to be accommodated and respected every other day of the year.”

The world is coming to Vancouver and Whistler for a two-week stay. What an extraordinary opportunity to not only showcase our unique identity, our linguistic duality and our cultural diversity, but also to foster cultural understanding and appreciation. Canada is home to more than 9 million French speakers, and almost 300,000 British Columbians speak French. Bartleman is one of those people and proud of it. Recently, she found out she would be a volunteer at the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Winter Games and is glad to be representing her country in both official languages as part of the 2010 Winter Games bilingual experience.

Currently living in Squamish BC, she is a proud Canadian who has come to understand the importance of French/English bilingualism. “I am a big supporter and enthusiastic proponent of Canadian bilingualism, a subject that is often treated with a lot of contempt and mockery out here in Western Canada,” she writes in her blog.

Originally from Montreal, Bartleman grew up in an English-speaking home and is the oldest of four children. In her early years, her family moved to Alberta where she attended a French immersion elementary school. Growing up, she didn’t understand the full scope of her parents’ insistence on bilingualism and like most children, didn’t care for French in school.

“No English kid likes going to school in French in Alberta because, you know, it seems irrelevant. I didn’t understand why it mattered or why it was relevant,” Bartelman recounts. “My dad made me do the Concours d’art oratoire (public speaking contest) from the time I was six. So to me everything was an effort and I saw no real world relation, especially because I come from an Anglophone family.”

Despite her dad’s best efforts to enforce “French night” at home, Bartleman still didn’t get why it was so important to speak both English and French.

Around age 11, she and her family moved back to Montreal where she attended an English high school. “It’s different when you’re in Montreal once you get to high school. You go to French class in high school in Montreal and sure you might hate it, but then you go out with your friends who are French or who speak French and it translates right . . . no pun intended.”

While Bartleman went on to pursue her life’s passions, she began to understand her father’s insistence on her learning Canada’s other official language. As she travelled across the country, she noticed that a whole lot of people speak French in Canada. “I go other places in Canada and meet all these francophones and I think it’s really cool.”

As she started participating in international competition, Michelle understood the importance of her second official language even more, meeting other athletes from around the world, making friends and picking up other languages in the process!

Now Bartleman is invited to speak at major events like La journée de la francophonie, a day celebrating French-Canadian culture regardless of geographical location.

“I recently had this enlightenment, after speaking at the Jour de la francophonie where there were all these BC francophones,” she says. “I had the realization that I’m their counterpart. I’m an anglophone Quebecer, an anglo-Québecoise.”

As guest speaker, Bartleman delivered her speech in French. Some other speakers were unable to deliver their speeches in Canada’s other official language. She describes this in her blog: “I couldn’t understand why the francophones, on their day, were still pandering to the anglos. And then it struck me. The BC francophones at this event get it. They understand the give and take needed to perpetuate understanding and appreciation between different cultures. They realize that, even on their day, they need to respect and accommodate anglophones in they same way that they as francophones hope to be accommodated and respected every other day of the year.”

The world is coming to Vancouver and Whistler for a two-week stay. What an extraordinary opportunity to not only showcase our unique identity, our linguistic duality and our cultural diversity, but also to foster cultural understanding and appreciation. Canada is home to more than 9 million French speakers, and almost 300,000 British Columbians speak French. Bartleman is one of those people and proud of it. Recently, she found out she would be a volunteer at the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Winter Games and is glad to be representing her country in both official languages as part of the 2010 Winter Games bilingual experience.

That domination largely continues in luge and bobsleigh – but in skeleton the Americans, Canadians and the British are making a name for themselves as they hurl themselves down icy, twisting, banked tracks in gravity-powered sleds.

If, at least for the women, skeleton is the new kid on the block it actually made its Olympic debut far earlier, in 1928.

Two years earlier the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had officially declared skeleton as an Olympic sport and Jennison Heaton promptly gave the United States gold.

Four-man bobsleigh appeared in the first Winter Games in 1924 (five-men in 1928) and the two-man variant followed in 1932, though the events were not included in 1960, while luge came in at the 1964 Games in Innsbruck.

Women made their Olympic skeleton entrance in pairs in 2002 at the Salt Lake Games, US star Tristan Gale landing gold before Swiss Maya Pedersen succeeded her four years later.

Taking silver in 2006 was Briton Shelley Rudman, who is now one of two Britons ranked in the world top ten ahead of fifth-placed Amy Williams, another regular top ten World Cup finisher.

Rudman ousted top-ranked Mellisa Hollingworth in the World Cup race at St Moritz last week to show her form with Williams fourth.

“This season has all been about improving every performance to peak ready for the Olympics and things are going well,” said Rudman.

Returning to the US men’s skeleton line-up after missing out in 2006 after testing positive for banned substance finasteride, a medication used to treat hair loss, is 2007 world champion Zach Lund.

US bobsleigh hopes are high in the shape of Steven Holcomb and John Napier, the world’s top-ranked four-man drivers.

Holcomb and his push team of Justin Olsen, Steve Mesler and Curt Tomasevicz will drive the USA I sled in Vancouver with Napier, Chuck Berkeley, Chris Fogt and Steve Langton in USA II.

Two-man lineups include Holcomb and Tomasevicz, Napier and Langton with Kohn’s second yet to be decided.

The women’s lineup features three pairs, Shauna Rohbock and Michelle Rzepka, Erin Pac and Elana Meyers and Bree Schaaf and Emily Azevedo.

Elsewhere, reigning two-and four-man bob champion Andre Lange of Germany is clearly one to watch as he bids for a hat-trick in the latter category.

In luge, look no further for now than Italian Armin “il cannibale” Zoeggeler, going for a third straight gold, though Russian World Cup challenger Albert Demtschenko and German world champ Felix Loch will run him close.

Among the “Doppelsitzer” (luge pairs) German World Cup leaders Andre Florschutz and Torsten Wustlich are hoping that glory beckons.

Vancouver (AFP) –

SKELETON
Kristan Bromley

Female counterpart Shelley Rudman may be better known but Britain are also looking to Doctor Ice, aka Kristan Bromley, to prescribe their Winter Olympic team a golden tonic in the skeleton.

Former world champion Bromley, 37, is a veteran of two Winter Games but has yet to reach the podium, placing fifth in Turin four years ago.

His 2008 world championship title was Britain’s first since 1964 and he also has two World Cup titles under his belt, in 2004 and 2008.

Fresh from a World Cup silver in St Moritz last week Bromley knows everything there is to know about his madcap sport, which sees competitors hurtle head first down a mile-long piste at breakneck speed.

In 1999 he earned his nickname by writing a university thesis bearing the undoubtledly cool title: “Factors affecting the performance of skeleton bobsleds”.

By then an old hand after starting out in the sport in 1996, he had long since conquered the stomach-churning fear experienced by a novice boarding the contraption in the first place.

Kristan knows if the technology fails he can only blame himself – or his brother Richard.

That’s because he and his sibling design his sleds for their own company.

A hi-tech sports sponsorship initiative supports him, providing specialised expertise and fellow Vancouver gold medal hope Rudman is also a beneficiary.

Bromley clearly likes to keep it in the family.

As well as his work alongside his brother he is the life partner of Rudman, with whom he had a child, Ella Marie, in October 2007.