The nail-biting sport continues to be a Winter Olympics favorite, but its massive speed and high intensity action can be treacherous.

With the 2026 Winter Olympics underway, here's a guide on the high-speed sledding sports: luge, skeleton and bobsleigh.

Luge made its Olympic debut in 1964, where athletes race feet first on a sled at speeds exceeding 80 miles per hour. Competitors complete four runs over two days and their cumulative times determine their rankings, with gold awarded for the lowest total time.

Here's a look at the differences between bobsled, luge and skeleton heading into the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics.

After Emily Fischnaller broke her neck and back at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics, she wasn’t sure if she would ever take another luge run again. Now on her third Olympic Games, she hopes to bring home her first medal.

Nobody knows for certain when luge — the French word for sled — started, since nobody surely took note of the first time someone slid feet-first down a slope. Some say the 15th century, with evidence that there were races in Norway around that time.