The Origin of Sledding: From Arctic Survival to Winter Olympic Sport

In the winter of 1887, a competitor at the Cresta Run in St. Moritz, Switzerland, took to the course in an unusual manner. The customary practice was to descend lying on one’s back with feet forward, but this particular individual flipped onto their stomach, head pointing downhill, and flew down the track in a prone, head-first position. This reckless-seeming attempt would later become the origin of the Olympic sport known as skeleton. Yet the man who first built that track was neither an athlete nor a soldier — he was a hotel entrepreneur trying to keep wealthy British tourists entertained through the winter.^[1]

This paradox reflects a pattern that runs through the entire history of sledding. The act of sliding swiftly across ice was, for tens of thousands of years, a matter of survival — then, at some point, it became a pastime for the wealthy, and eventually made its way onto the Olympic stage. Along that journey, the sled took on four entirely distinct roles: a means of transport, a military tool, an aristocratic amusement, and a competitive sport.

A Tool Older Than the Wheel

The sled predates the wheel by at least 1,500 years. While the earliest evidence of the wheel appears around 3,500 BCE in Mesopotamia, traces of sleds or sled-like devices go back considerably further.^[2]

A 2025 study published in the journal Quaternary Science Advances pushed that history back to 22,000 years ago. Near fossilized human footprints discovered at the Alkali Flat region of White Sands National Park in New Mexico, USA, researchers found groove-like marks that appeared to have been made by dragging wooden poles. A team led by Matthew R. Bennett of Bournemouth University concluded that these were most likely traces of a travois — a primitive transport device made by lashing two poles together in an A-frame shape and dragging them along the ground.^[3] The footprints show an adult pulling this device with children walking alongside. This is evidence of cargo being moved by human power alone, without a single pack animal, at the height of the last Ice Age.

Evidence of sled-like transport has also been found in the Sumerian region, with artifacts dating to approximately 3,200 BCE. The oldest surviving physical sled is a ceremonial example excavated from a Sumerian royal burial site, dating back some 4,600 years.^[2] These artifacts suggest that sleds were used even in environments without snow and ice. This simple device — capable of hauling heavy loads without wheels — enabled the movement of goods across all manner of terrain.

Dog Sledding: 9,500 Years of Partnership

In Arctic and sub-Arctic regions, the history of the sled is inseparably entwined with the relationship between humans and dogs. A 2020 genomic study published in Current Biology revealed that the common ancestors of modern sled dog breeds diverged at least 9,500 years ago in Siberia.^[4] The archaeological evidence underlying this study came from Zhokhov Island in Russia’s East Siberian Sea. Analysis of dog bones found on the island showed that the island’s inhabitants had deliberately selectively bred sled dogs weighing between 16 and 25 kilograms. According to reporting in the journal Science, this represents the earliest known evidence of dog breed selection.^[4]

In Arctic indigenous societies, the sled was far more than a means of transport — it was survival infrastructure itself. Inuit and Yupik communities across northern Canada, Greenland, Alaska, and Siberia used dog sleds to connect hunting grounds and trading posts hundreds of kilometers apart. The ability to travel such distances enabled coastal Arctic peoples to maintain extensive trade networks. Smithsonian Magazine reported that the husky ancestors had co-adapted with humans to the Arctic environment for 9,500 years, describing this not merely as domestication but as a case of co-evolution.^[5]

The introduction of the snowmobile in the early twentieth century rapidly displaced dog sledding in many regions. Yet dog sledding did not merely survive as a mode of transportation — it was reinvented. The Iditarod race in Alaska, first held in 1973, reestablished dog sledding as a modern sport. Covering approximately 1,600 kilometers from Anchorage to Nome, the race also commemorates a historic event from 1925, when relay teams of dog sleds raced to deliver diphtheria antitoxin to Nome.^[6]

The Birth at St. Moritz: The Transformation into Sport

The birthplace of modern competitive sledding sports was not the Arctic, but the Swiss Alpine resort town of St. Moritz. The man who planted the seed was Caspar Badrutt, owner of the Kulm Hotel.

Until the mid-nineteenth century, St. Moritz was a summer resort with virtually no guests in winter. In 1864, Badrutt made a wager with a group of English guests: “Come back in winter, and I will cover all your accommodation costs. If it disappoints you, I will pay your travel expenses.” The English visitors experienced St. Moritz in winter and returned every year thereafter. This was the beginning of Alpine winter tourism, and the backdrop against which sled sports grew popular among wealthy British tourists.^[1]

In 1884, British guests and local residents collaborated to build the Cresta Run in St. Moritz — a natural ice run connecting St. Moritz to the nearby village of Celerina over approximately 1,213 meters. Major William Bulpett, supported by Badrutt, led the construction of the track, and the Grand National Championship was held on this course beginning in 1885.^[1]

The emergence of the Cresta Run became the starting point from which three distinct sled sports would branch off.

Skeleton: Going Down Headfirst

Of the three disciplines, skeleton has the clearest origin. It was at the 1887 Cresta Run Grand National that competitors first attempted what would define the sport: descending head-first in a prone position. This extreme posture became the identity of the discipline.^[1]

In 1892, British athlete L. P. Child introduced a new type of sled — a simplified metal frame whose appearance was said to resemble a human skeleton, giving the sport its name. Some etymologists argue the name derives from a mistaken Anglicization of the Norwegian word for sled, kjelke, but the explanation that it resembles a skeleton’s frame is more widely accepted.^[7]

Skeleton was included in the Winter Olympics only twice — at the 1928 Games in St. Moritz and the 1948 Games, also in St. Moritz — before disappearing from the Olympic programme for over half a century. It was not reinstated as a full Olympic event until the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games, when a women’s competition was added for the first time.^[7] Skeleton athletes descend icy tracks at speeds of up to 140 kilometers per hour, and the sport was the last of the three sledding disciplines to secure a permanent place at the Olympics.

Bobsleigh: The Arrival of the Steerable Sled

Bobsleigh came about through a slightly different path. The commonly cited origin is 1890, when British visitor Wilson Smith connected two toboggans end-to-end and used the resulting contraption to slide down the hillside at St. Moritz with a group of friends. From there, bobsleigh evolved into a more sophisticated form equipped with a steering mechanism and brakes, and in 1898, the first official race using a five-man sled was held in St. Moritz.^[8]

The name “bobsleigh” is said to derive from the “bobbing” motion competitors made back and forth to gain speed around corners. An alternative explanation holds that it refers to the rocking motion riders made while pushing the sled at the start.^[8]

In 1923, the International Bobsleigh and Tobogganing Federation (FIBT, now IBSF) was founded to standardize the rules, and the following year — 1924 — four-man bobsleigh was included as an official event at the inaugural Winter Olympics in Chamonix, France.^[8] Bobsleigh was thus the first of the three sled sports to reach the Olympic Games.

One of the most unforgettable moments in bobsleigh history came at the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics, when a team from Jamaica entered the competition. The very notion of a tropical Caribbean nation fielding a bobsleigh team captivated the world, and despite a dramatic crash in the final run, the image of the team members calmly carrying their sled to the finish line became one of the most enduring in Olympic memory. The 1993 film Cool Runnings adapted this story and found worldwide success.^[9] The film demonstrated that winter sports could take root even in climatically disadvantaged countries, and it inspired several tropical nations to attempt Winter Olympic participation in the years that followed.

Luge: The Fastest and the Latest

Luge — a sport whose name comes from the French word for sled — was the last of the three sledding disciplines to debut at the Olympics, yet today it is the most widely practiced.

The origins of luge also trace back to St. Moritz and the Swiss Alps. The first international luge competition was held in Davos, Switzerland, in 1883. Initially, skeleton, bobsleigh, and luge were all governed by the same body — the International Bobsleigh and Tobogganing Federation — but in 1957, representatives of thirteen nations gathered in Davos to establish an independent International Luge Federation (FIL).^[10]

Luge made its Olympic debut at the 1964 Winter Games in Innsbruck, Austria. That debut was shadowed by tragedy. On January 21, 1964 — roughly two weeks before the opening of the Games — Polish-British luge athlete Kazimierz Kay-Skrzypecki was killed in a collision during training on the luge track. He became the first fatality in Winter Olympic history.^[11] Around the same time, Australian alpine skier Ross Milne also lost his life during training, and so the 1964 Innsbruck Games opened under the shadow of two deaths.

In luge, competitors lie on their backs with feet forward and descend at speeds exceeding 140 kilometers per hour. Steering is accomplished through subtle shifts of the body and pressure applied via foot pads or handles, relying on gravity and minute physical adjustments alone. Today, luge is contested in four events at the Winter Olympics: men’s singles, women’s singles, doubles, and team relay.^[10]

First-time observers often confuse luge and skeleton, but the key difference lies in body position. Luge is feet-first, face-up; skeleton is head-first, face-down. Bobsleigh, unlike both, uses an enclosed sled carrying multiple athletes, with a designated pilot who steers.

What Sets the Three Apart

That all three sports emerged from a single city, a single hotelier, and a single era is a remarkable fact. The natural landscape of the Swiss Alps combined with the adventurous spirit of late-nineteenth-century British aristocratic travelers conspired to produce disciplines that are now central to the Winter Olympics.

The Physics of the Track: Why So Fast?

Modern bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton tracks are not natural ice courses — they are precision structures equipped with artificial refrigeration systems. Tracks are designed to a standard of 1,200 to 1,500 meters in length with an elevation drop of approximately 100 to 130 meters, and surfaces are maintained at between minus five and minus seven degrees Celsius.^[12]

The speeds reached on these tracks are not simply the result of gravity. The curved sections of a track generate centrifugal forces of up to 5G, and athletes must withstand those forces while simultaneously making minute adjustments to the sled’s direction. In bobsleigh, the push-off at the start has a decisive impact on the outcome, which is why teams frequently include former sprinters among their members.^[12]

In luge and skeleton, a competitor’s aerodynamic body position directly affects speed. Luge athletes must navigate the track from memory, since the face-up position makes it difficult to see ahead. Skeleton athletes hurtle down with their heads leading, only centimeters above the ice surface, meaning the finest variations in ice texture are transmitted directly to their chins and faces.^[7]

All three sports represent the ultimate refinement of a principle humanity has been developing for millennia: reduce friction, harness gravity.

From Survival Tool to Olympic Arena

Tracing the arc of sledding’s history reveals a story of a single simple principle acquiring entirely different meanings in entirely different contexts. For humans 22,000 years ago, a dragged wooden pole was a condition of survival. For the hunters of Zhokhov Island 9,500 years ago, dog sleds were the technology that made the vast Arctic traversable. And in 1887 in St. Moritz, when hotel guests threw themselves headfirst down an icy run, that same principle became a vehicle for thrill and competition.

Sledding sports, now formalized into three Olympic disciplines, belong to a world of professional engineering and scientific training. Yet trace their origins back far enough, and what you find is not a desire to slide across ice faster and faster — but a necessity: to move cargo over frozen ground and pursue prey across the snow. The athlete waiting for the automated start signal on a precision-refrigerated Olympic track inhabits a world unimaginably different from those who first laid wooden poles on ice thousands of years ago — yet stands at the far end of a long lineage that began the moment those first poles met the ice.