Difference Between Luge, Skeleton: Team USA's Emily Sweeny Crashes Luging

The Pyeongchang luge, skeleton and bobsled course has been giving some riders a rough start to the games. The course has 16 curves throughout it with one, in particular, causing many of the problems for riders, curve nine.

For some, the curve has been slowing their times and throwing them off course, but in Pyeongchang Tuesday, the curve quite literally threw one luge rider for a loop. Team USA member Emily Sweeny lost control while trying to maneuver the curve and ended up hanging on to her sled for dear life. Video of Sweeny shows her trying to regain control and then crashing up into one wall feet first before bouncing back to hit the opposite side head or neck first.

Sweeny reportedly stood up and was able to leave the venue with help for a medical examination following the crash. Sweeny isn’t the only one who has struggled with the curve, a number of athletes sat down with USA Today Sports and explained that “Curve nine has been the thorn in everyone’s side,” as luger Erin Hamlin said.

Luge, bobsled and skeleton all happen on the same tracks. The difference between luge and skeleton has to do with the direction the athlete faces on the sled and whether or not they start on the sled. For skeleton, the athlete runs for a few seconds before jumping head first onto the sled. For luge, the athlete starts sitting on the sled and pushes themselves forward before leaning back and lying flat.

Sweeny’s luge crash, while terrifying for her and onlookers, didn’t have the worst ending it could have. Every time an athlete hits the ice they’re taking a risk complicated by the fact that every track in the world is a little bit different.

The track during the Sochi Games was a bit slower and easier to maneuver than others. But that wasn’t always the plan. The Vancouver Olympic track at Whistler was built to be the fastest and most treacherous in the world, which it was, but after the death of a Georgian luger, Nodar Kumaritashvili, during his training run, plans for the Sochi track were changed and the Whistler track was adjusted, NPR reported. Sweeny’s crash happened on the anniversary of Kumaritashvili’s fatal one.

The only luger to ever die in the Olympic Games other than Kumaritashvili was Kazimierz Kay-Skrzypecki, a British luger who died during the 1964 Games. No Olympian has died during the games while doing the skeleton or bobsled.