Skeletons in the closet? Team GB faces ‘cheat’ claim over skin suits
WHEN Laura Deas, Team GB’S skeleton rider who is seventh in the World Cup standings, posted the two fastest times in the practice runs at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, eyebrows were raised among her rivals.
Surprise turned to outright scepticism on Monday when Lizzy Yarnold, her team-mate, who won gold at the Sochi games but is currently ranked ninth in the world, produced the third and fourth fastest times.
Soon other countries were questioning what it was that was giving Team GB the apparent edge, even before the women’s event proper begins tomorrow morning.
They quickly identified what they suspected was the answer – the skintight suits worn by Deas, Yarnold and their male team-mates, who begin competing today.
It emerged that the special drag-resistant suits have inbuilt ridges that create a “turbulence effect” to reduce the amount of wind resistance acting on the body.
Even before they had been unveiled this week, Yarnold hinted they could make a vital difference in the skeleton, an event that requires riders to hurtle down a steep ice track at speeds of up to 78mph while balanced front-down on a sled barely larger than a tea tray.
“That innovation on the equipment side is where we can make massive gains,” she said last month.
The appearance of the suits, and the practice times posted by Team GB, led to complaints from their rivals. Team USA for one was having none of it.
Katie Uhlaender, the US star who was the double world champion in 2012, said that “a lot of athletes and coaches” had questioned whether the suit was legal. She added: “I think this has been a question posed in the last two Olympics starting in 2010 with [the GB gold medallist] Amy Williams and her helmet and suit.
“The rules state that everyone is supposed to have access to the same equipment as far as helmets and speed suits go, and not have any aerodynamic attachments on the helmet or in the suit.
“I think it’s right to ask the question and make sure everyone is on a fair playing field.
“I was trying to get a suit of the same quality and I was told it was illegal. This is like Amy’s helmet in 2010 and, in my opinion, that helmet was illegal.”
So loud were the complaints that the suits will give Team GB an unfair advantage that the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (IBSF) was forced to step in.
The IBSF attempted to defuse the situation at a meeting of all skeleton team captains yesterday, when they confirmed the suits had been cleared for competition.
“The IBSF checked race suits of the British skeleton team and there were no rule violations at the presented suits,” said a spokesman.
Jerry Rice, the British skeleton rider who, like Dom Parsons, his team-mate, also showed a marked improvement in the practice runs while wearing the suit, defended its use.
“People can speculate as much as they like,” he said. “The fact of the matter is the British guys are fast because we’re good at sliding, no other reason. We’re innovators, we do everything we can to be as fast as we can be.
“Dom, Lizzy and Laura are all showing it and I’m doing my best to show it as well. That’s why we’re quick.”
The test will come today, when – new suits or not – the skeleton riders begin their race for gold.