--- title: How They Train: Skeleton Racing | TIME description: TIME's Sean Gregory (tries) to follow World Champion skeleton racer Noelle Pikus-Pace as she trains for the upcoming winter Olympics canonical: https://time.com/video/J93pEs3N/ og:title: How They Train: Skeleton Racing og:description: TIME's Sean Gregory (tries) to follow World Champion skeleton racer Noelle Pikus-Pace as she trains for the upcoming winter Olympics og:url: https://time.com/video/J93pEs3N/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/J93pEs3N/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How They Train: Skeleton Racing twitter:description: TIME's Sean Gregory (tries) to follow World Champion skeleton racer Noelle Pikus-Pace as she trains for the upcoming winter Olympics twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/J93pEs3N/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # How They Train: Skeleton Racing > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: How They Train: Skeleton Racing [Watch (HLS stream): How They Train: Skeleton Racing](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/J93pEs3N.m3u8) (6:48)  _Published 2009-12-04. TIME's Sean Gregory (tries) to follow World Champion skeleton racer Noelle Pikus-Pace as she trains for the upcoming winter Olympics_ --- Jul 27, 2023 1:16 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Climber Kyra Condie Trains TIME's Sean Gregory on New Olympic Sport](/video/6MqlQjDZ/) ### Climber Kyra Condie Trains TIME's Sean Gregory on New Olympic Sport [The Skeleton Twins - Trailer](/video/gFHE1jxE/) ### The Skeleton Twins - Trailer [How They Train: Fencing with Sean Gregory](/video/TeZ5hoMc/) ### How They Train: Fencing with Sean Gregory --- ## Transcript Skeleton is a sport where racers sprint to the starting line, dive head first on to the steel sled then stir down the winding ice track at more than 80 miles an hour. This is World Champion skeleton racer, Noelle Pikus- Pace. It's 7: 30 p. m. and she's about to take her first training run of the season, but she don't get to slide as the skeleton athletes call it just by showing up at the track. Let's see how her training day began. >> You take them just really quick, you know, just to get back the speed going. >> Noelle is the youngest of eight kids and loves country music. She's also a wife and mother of a daughter who's almost two. Even with her family responsibilities, Noelle has a sick workout. Her warmups are longer than most people's entire workup. >> Then again you train, stay tall and do it really quick. >> Because skeleton requires a running start, racers use a lot of track and field techniques in their training. >> High flex and let your leg go like that. One of the things that I think about is making sure I'm on my toe cause I don't wanna be flat- footed then I do it to the side as well. One other thing that's really good drill is to be a hurdlelist, bringing your leg up and around, so it strike and you come around. Makes sure you got it all the way around. >> The push facility is where athletes come to replicate their on- ice stunts and to train in warmer months. >> So, this is where we train. >> So, I am gonna get a lesson in how to go down the scary hill on that little thing. >> Are you excited? >> Well, I'm afraid of heights and we're not that high up thankfully, but that little dip down there-- it's all concrete. >> Just a little bit. >> This is money. I could feel it. Oh, boy that was awful. Wow. Now keep in mind Noelle is a world caliber skeleton athlete. Don't try this at home. >> You're giving everything you've got for 40 to 50 meters. So, actually, you're just gonna be kind of a little out of breath and then the hard part is being able to calm your heart rate down and being able to like, take a breath and relax so that we can focus on what lies ahead and not think about what just happened. >> Her bright unwavering spirit pushed her through a long recovery process after a major injury. In 2005 before the touring games you were the favorite going in and then you were hit by a bobsled. >> After I took a training run in Calgary, I was there at the Olympic trials in 2005, a bobsled came out of the track. They came out at the end of track where five of us were waiting for a track to go up to the top and it hit me from behind and- >> It hit your right. >> My right leg on the back of my calf, hence, I had an open tibia- fibula fracture. >> And where is the rod exactly? >> My bones came out right here and they put a rod down through my knee and down to my ankle and then they put in some screws on the sides. >> And does it bug you? Or did you have to kind of [ unk ]? Did you know it's there? >> I can tell when it's gonna rain. >> You're serious? >> Yeah, it likes get really achy. >> For the 2006 Olympics, she was named as an alternate to the team, but four years later, Noelle is at the top of her game and again as a favorite going into Vancouver. So, Noelle, what are we looking at here? >> This is the bottom of my sled. So this is the part that's actually on the ice. My husband actually made this sled for me just for the cheer- >> Did he do the stickers too? >> No that sticker's me. >> Okay. >> This is my baby. >> Flipping the sled over, Noelle talks about proper racing form. >> It's just tucking your arms really tight and then keeping your leg straight and your feet together, your toes pointed. I actually tend to touch my chin, and obviously I have a helmet on, and so I have a chin guard and I tried to touch that chin guard on ice --. >> Does that hurt? There can be a cut. Is that painful? >> No, it doesn't. I mean I don't drag it. It's just that like once in a while just to make sure I'm low enough, I'll try to touch it down and then I look back up to make sure I have my aerodynamic form. When you're going 80 miles an hour, it's such an adrenaline sport, but at the same time there's finesse, you know, it's like a rhythmic dance. You're going in, you're stirring up and out and down and it's just so flowy like-- it seems like we're like these hard core athletes, right? Like, you know, we're going 80 to 90 miles an hour, head first down a crazy shoot of ice, but it really is all about just like feeling the rhythm and dancing your way down the track. >> During the day, Noelle will continue her workouts on a running track [ unk ]. Before rocketing down the track in the evening, she and her fellow racer study every curve and visualize a game plan in their heads like students preparing for a final exam, but here they screw up, they don't get a lower grade, they crash. >> For me, it's like a puzzle like thinking about a puzzle and how they all fit together perfectly and it's finding out which piece goes with which piece and so you say " okay, why they stir up here and then stir down? Okay, figured out that curve, that's perfect. I got this piece set ." Going through straight away a lot of times you'll have a [ unk ] breathe especially after doing that big sprint you have, you know, your breathing really hard and so at that time it'll make your sled sway back and forth and you really wanna make sure that when you come out of a curve you're looking straight at the entry where you want to enter. And then you try and figure out how you can go in to the next curve so you can set yourself for a good entry and a good exit, so that exit will set up for a good entry. [ unk ] challenge to figure out where those pieces go in and to make a perfect puzzle. As I'm looking down at the ice, I can see how it's kind of rounded and then you can see where it kind of goes into a 90. So, you just get down in this angle and you can kind of see where it's gonna start to get straight and so I know that right around here is where I'm gonna let go of my second stirring in this curve, so that it will hold me on the curve and I can get a nice entry. Pretty fun, huh. >> Like all gravity sports, because the G force pressure is extreme, the athletes have to be strong. Racers stir by applying torque to their sleds. They'll use their shoulders and knees to twist the sleds and even their toes to control direction. After the track walk, we're back where we started. Noelle getting ready to ride. It's winning the overall World Cup title in 2005. She has broken a leg, won a World Championship, started a family and struggle with injury and doubt, but this season, she has been strong. Before the start, Noelle pictures every twist and turn, which also has the effect of relaxing her body and when you lose in skeleton you're fat and when you're fast as Noelle Pikus- Pace you could be as good as gold. 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