Winter Youth Olympic Games Gangwon 2024: How to watch bobsleigh and skeleton at the next YOG
Want all the details about bobsleigh and skeleton at the next Winter Youth Olympic Games? Discover the Gangwon 2024 schedule, sliding event formats, and all the top facts you need to know here.
Gangwon 2024, the fourth Winter Youth Olympic Games (YOG) and the first to be held in Asia, is fast approaching.
The South Korean province, which also hosted the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018, welcomes the world's best young athletes in January 2024.
Every winter Olympic sport, including bobsleigh and skeleton, is on the programme. Discover all the essentials you need to know about the sport at Gangwon 2024 as we begin the countdown towards the Opening Ceremony on 19 January 2024.
ALSO READ: Top Facts about the Gangwon 2024 Winter YOG
Bobsleigh and skeleton at Gangwon 2024: Schedule and venue
Several PyeongChang 2018 venues will be re-used for Gangwon 2024.
The Alpensia Sliding Centre, which hosted luge during PyeongChang 2018 and saw Francesco Friedrich win two bobsleigh gold medals while home hero Yun Sung-bin won the Republic of Korea's first ever skeleton Olympic gold, will be repurposed for Gangwon 2024.
While the Winter Youth Olympic Games Gangwon 2024 are set to take place from 19 January–1 February 2024, but specific dates have not yet been set for the individual competitions.
Bobsleigh at Gangwon 2024: Events and format
There are two bobsleigh events at Gangwon 2024:
- Women's monobob
- Men's monobob
It is the third time the monobob is included at a Winter Youth Olympic Games.
With just one athlete in a 165kg sled that can reach 130 km/h, athletes need to possess both athletic power for the start, precision steering through the turns, and the strength to battle strong G-forces.
All the sleds are identical, and are allocated to athletes in a random draw.
A combined time from two competition heats will decide the champion.
How to qualify for bobsleigh at Gangwon 2024 Winter Youth Olympic Games
The total quota of athletes participating in bobsleigh at Gangwon 2024 is limited to 36 competitors (18 men and 18 women), with the maximum amount of competitors from one NOC set at six (three men, and three women).
The allocation of quota places is based on the IBSF Youth Olympics Ranking list, based on the points accumulated by each athlete on the IBSF Youth Ranking during the 2022/23 and 2023/24 seasons.
All athletes must have participated in a minimum of eight IBSF youth qualification races on three different tracks during the qualification period between 1 January 2023 and 10 December 2023.
The athlete must also have been ranked in at least three of the eight above mentioned races on a minimum of two different tracks during the 2023/24 season, of which, one of the qualifying events must have been at the PyeongChang track by 10 December 2023.
All competitors must have been born between 1 January 2006 and 31 December 2009.
For more details on bobsleigh qualification at Gangwon 2024, click here.
Skeleton at Gangwon 2024: Events and format
There are two skeleton events at Gangwon 2024:
- Women's individual
- Men's individual
The first 30m at the start of skeleton is pivotal, and athletes need to possess the power of a sprinter.
They lie head first on the sled, controlling the direction with tiny head and body movements while navigating against G-force through turns.
A combined time from two competition heats will decide the champion.
How to qualify for skeleton at Gangwon 2024 Winter Youth Olympic Games
The total quota of competitors participating in skeleton at Gangwon 2024 is limited to 40 athletes (20 men and 20 women), with the maximum amount of competitors from one NOC set at six (three men, and three women).
The allocation of quota places is based on the IBSF Youth Olympics Ranking list, created based on the points accumulated by each athlete on the IBSF Youth Ranking during the 2022/23 and 2023/24 seasons.
All athletes must have participated in a minimum of eight IBSF youth qualification races on three different tracks during the qualification period between 1 January 2023 and 10 December 2023.
The athlete must also have been ranked in at least three of the eight above mentioned races on a minimum of two different tracks during the 2023/24 season, of which one of the qualifying events must have been at the PyeongChang track before 10 December 2023.
All competitors must have been born between 1 January 2006 and 31 December 2009.
For more details on bobsleigh qualification at Gangwon 2024, click here.
Winter Youth Olympic Games bobsleigh and skeleton – previous stars
Germany's Laura Nolte won the first ever monobob Youth Olympic Games gold medal at Lillehammer 2016.
She went on to become a junior two-woman world champion and European champion in 2021, before sealing two-woman Olympic gold alongside Deborah Levi at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.
Nolte's compatriot, Hannah Neise, won silver in women's skeleton at the Lillehammer 2016 YOG, and despite never going better than bronze at the ultra-competitive German Championships, took the women's Olympic title at Beijing 2022.
Dutch skeleton athlete Kimberley Bos finished behind Heise in bronze at the Beijing 2022 Games, but her sliding career actually began in bobsleigh, where she won two-woman silver at the Innsbruck 2012 YOG.
Jacqueline Loelling of Germany landed the inaugural women's skeleton gold medal at the Innsbruck 2012 YOG, and went on to win individual European and world titles in 2017, as well as Olympic silver at PyeongChang 2018.
ALSO READ: YOG athletes who lit up the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games
Winter Youth Olympic Games Gangwon 2024 News and livestream action coverage
Sign up for a free Olympics.com account and select the sliding sports as favourites to receive app notifications and email alerts for more bobsleigh and skeleton sports coverage ahead of the Gangwon 2024 YOGs. This includes News articles, race results, schedules, and live streaming information for how to watch the action online and on TV.
