Skeleton: Vancouver 2010 ones to watch – Kristan Bromley
Vancouver (AFP) – Penpix of stars to watch at the February 12-28 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver:
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.
