David Isaacson
5 February 2006
Johannesburg — SKELETON slider Tyler Botha has literally put his career on ice to compete in the Winter Olympics.
Botha hasn't enjoyed a South African summer for six years, pursuing his love for skeleton, where competitors fly down ice tracks at speeds of up to 130km/h.
On some tracks they can reach close to six G-forces - the type of acceleration more commonly associated with Formula One drivers and fighter pilots.
"There's a track in Germany which has a corner where you can't keep your head off the ice. Your head slides on the ice for about two metres, " says Botha, who is one of three South Africans competing at the 2006 Turin Olympics from Friday.
The team, South Africa's biggest to participate at a Winter Games, also features veteran Alpine skier Alex Heath and cross-country skier Oliver Kraas.
Johannesburg-born Botha has been to the Swiss resort of St Moritz - the birthplace of skeleton more than 100 years ago, although the sport was only reintroduced into the Olympics in 2002 after sporadic appearances - every winter since he matriculated in 1997.
But he's been racing competitively for just two seasons, earning qualification for the Turin Games by finishing joint first at the recent Challenge Cup, a competition that excludes the top 12 nations in the world.
"I do bitch about the fact that I haven't had a summer for so long, but it's fun here," says Botha, who at high school excelled in summer sports including rowing and the 400m.
Botha was mentored by Irishman Clifton Wrottesley, who after only two competitive seasons finished fourth at the Salt Lake City Games four years ago.
"But Clifton had a lot more
tobogganing experience before he
became competitive than I do," adds Botha, 25, who quit his job as a sound engineer to concentrate on sliding.
Botha's Olympic competition will be the quickest of the SA team, with his event comprising just two runs of about a minute each. The field of 28 will be trimmed to 20 after the first run.
"I'd very much like to get a second run and get as close to the top 10 as possible," he said.
Kraas, the son of a German father and Canadian mother who has been studying at the University of Leipzig since 1998, and Heath, who is based in England although he has spent much time in the US recently, are up against 100-odd competitors in their events.
From an international perspective, there is unlikely to be much interest in the South African contingent.
In Alpine skiing, the focus will be on Croatian Janica Kostelic, who won three golds and a silver in 2002, as well as Norway's Kjetil Andre Aamodt, the only skier to win seven Olympic medals, and Hermann Maier of Austria.
In biathlon, Ole Einar Bjørndalen of Norway is a legend after his haul of four gold medals in 2002, and in ski-jumping Switzerland's Simon Ammann will be aiming to repeat the two golds he won at Salt Lake City.
While downhill (one form of Alpine skiing) is a blue-riband event of the Winter Games, the new sport of board cross - a snowboarding event where six competitors race each other in heats - is expected to pull large crowds.
Ski-jumping, figure skating and ice hockey are also perennial favourites.
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