--- title: A Skeleton Athlete's Skull-Faced Helmet | TIME description: Irish skeleton athlete Patrick Shannon has one of the most noticeable helmet designs at the Winter Games. He explains why he sports the Angel of Death canonical: https://time.com/video/wFR0v8LM/ og:title: A Skeleton Athlete's Skull-Faced Helmet og:description: Irish skeleton athlete Patrick Shannon has one of the most noticeable helmet designs at the Winter Games. He explains why he sports the Angel of Death og:url: https://time.com/video/wFR0v8LM/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/wFR0v8LM/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: A Skeleton Athlete's Skull-Faced Helmet twitter:description: Irish skeleton athlete Patrick Shannon has one of the most noticeable helmet designs at the Winter Games. He explains why he sports the Angel of Death twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/wFR0v8LM/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # A Skeleton Athlete's Skull-Faced Helmet > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Subscription: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME is a general-interest news organization founded in 1923, reporting on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world. A TIME subscription provides full access to that journalism in print and digital, from $20 a year, and can be cancelled at any time. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: A Skeleton Athlete's Skull-Faced Helmet [Watch (HLS stream): A Skeleton Athlete's Skull-Faced Helmet](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/wFR0v8LM.m3u8) (3:11)  _Published 2010-02-25. Irish skeleton athlete Patrick Shannon has one of the most noticeable helmet designs at the Winter Games. He explains why he sports the Angel of Death_ --- Jul 27, 2023 1:20 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Why a Ukrainian athlete was disqualified from the Winter Olympic over his “helmet of remembrance”](/video/USHIo0Gh/) ### Why a Ukrainian athlete was disqualified from the Winter Olympic over his “helmet of remembrance” [The Skeleton Twins - Trailer](/video/gFHE1jxE/) ### The Skeleton Twins - Trailer [How They Train: Skeleton Racing](/video/J93pEs3N/) ### How They Train: Skeleton Racing --- ## Transcript >> When the US athletes came out into the arena at the 2010 opening ceremonies in Vancouver, the group was huge. Ireland in comparison has just 6 athletes at these games. Skeleton racer Patrick Shannon is one of them. >> For the Winter Games here in Vancouver, there's only 6 Irish people. We've caused a women's bobsleigh team for the first time ever, and we've got a cross country skier and we've got two downhill skiers, so it's a pretty small team, and then myself included in doing skeleton. I love skeleton because it's just a rush. It's adrenaline rush, we feel a 140 kilometers an hour, going down a track of ice, the air is rushing at your head, you know, you can feel the whistle of the winds right beside your ear. And when we hit 6 Gs, your head is just scraping against the ice when we go through those corners. But when you cross that finish line, the feeling is just amazing. You've conquered your fear of that track and that I think is for a lot of people, you know, really love throughout the sport. >> What originally caught everyone's eye when he stepped into the track with his helmet, the Grim reaper in Ireland where all green color is quite a site, but there's a story there. >> I actually was in a head crash 4 years ago in Germany. It was a pretty serious crash and what happened I was actually fractured my collarbone, cracked the jaw, cracked the hip and I was then actually smashed my helmet at the same time. So, you know, I was pretty much hospitalized for, you know, a few days with those and took a long time to actually recover, and so what a devil's the following season, I needed the helmet. So, the actual design it took me ages to actually think of a design, but I had a poster at home of a Grim Reaper, you know, the angel of death holding a scythe and I actually done up in an actual skeleton figure and I thought I came so close to, you know, I could have, you know, I could have killed myself every time I go down the track. I'm a little bit nervous and conquering that fear, you know. It's just been fantastic and I think this helmet is really kinda like helped me to do that. >> Shannon did conquer his fear at these games. After all, Whistler Sliding track is the fastest in the world and this is the same track where Georgian luger, Nodar Kumaritashvili died in a practice run, the day before the games began. But finding the time and the money to come up to Canada before the games was too hard. So Shannon has only been down in this track 14 times in practice and 3 times in Olympic competition. Given he had so little time to practice and compared to the hundreds of fronts the Canadian athletes have had in their home track. Shannon isn't too disappointed with the 25th place finish. >> This has been my first Olympics and it's been absolutely amazing atmosphere. My own sighting, I'll always be a little bit annoyed, but I couldn't do a little bit better because it's my first time experience. I'm absolutely delighted. 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