What exactly is it about Britons that makes us so good at hurtling down an icy drainpipe? | Zoe Williams

Team GB has swept up the skeleton medals at the Winter Olympics. I suspect it’s something to do with our capacity at weathering tremendous, impotent fear It’s amazing how fast you can become a passionate superfan of a sport that five minutes before, you thought was called luge. Turns out the head-first hurtle down a drainpipe of ice is called skeleton. Turns out the feet-first version, luge, also has a doubles category, where one elite athlete lies on top of another, and they both go down feet first; this isn’t relevant to skeleton, but it feels deeply relevant, in some mysterious and compelling way, to the human condition. Turns out the UK is better at skeleton than any other nation on Earth. Who knew? Even before Matt Weston had won his solo gold medal last Friday, skeleton was easily the most watchable sport of the Winter Olympics, because the commentary was so soothing. Tangle with snowboarding and you’re going to hear a lot of unfamiliar words – grabs, spins, flips and rail manoeuvres – accompanied by the modifiers “spectacular” and “ooh”, and commentators won’t tell you what any of it means because they’re too excited, even though that is their one job. Continue reading...

By Zoe Williams