冬奥会的雪橇和钢架雪车都是极速的滑行项目。出发后，运动员或躺着或趴着，沿着一条曲折的下坡赛道极速前进，依靠精湛的技术控制方向，直到冲过终点。在不明所以的观众看来，是不是和在旅游景点玩冰滑梯差不多？等等，先别急着喊“我上我也行”，这类运动可能是最危险、最刺激、最“卷”的冰上项目。
What Is Luge? What Is Skeleton?
Both are death-defying sledding events. In skeleton, athletes go headfirst.
雪橇和钢架雪车都是“不畏死亡”的滑行运动。钢架雪车的运动员头朝前滑行。
Here’s how to keep the two sledding sports straight:
In luge, athletes speed down an icy track on a small sled.
In skeleton, they do it headfirst.
Luge is the more familiar of the two. It has a great name. Luge. It’s onomatopoetic, like a sled whooshing down an icy track.
雪橇是这两项运动中比较为人熟知的一个。它有一个响亮的名字：雪橇。它的英文Luge是个拟声词，就像雪橇在冰冷的轨道上呼啸而过的声音。
Luge is kind of like when you leapt onto your Flexible Flyer and steered down the hill with your feet, but these sleds weigh 50 pounds and can hit speeds of 90 miles per hour.
雪橇有点像你跳上灵活的飞行器并用脚从山上滑下，不同的是这些雪橇重 50 磅，可以达到每小时 90 英里的速度。
And then there’s doubles luge. Is that just one person lying on top of another as they race down the icy track? Yeah, pretty much.
再来看看双人雪橇。当他们在冰冷的赛道上飞驰的时候，只是一个人躺在另一个人身上吗？是的，差不多。
They’ve been lugeing in the Olympics since 1964. A lot of people remember that some lugers in the 1970s wore Conehead-style helmets to gain an aerodynamic advantage. Those helmets are no longer allowed.
雪橇从1964年起被列为正式比赛项目。很多人都记得20世纪70年代的一些雪橇运动员佩戴 Conehead 式头盔以获得空气动力学优势。后来那些头盔已被禁止使用。
The start of the race is vital. The lugers push off with their hands as they sit facing forward on the sled and try to get going as fast as possible, aided by gloves that have spikes to grip the ice. They steer with their calves as they shoot around the corners of the course.
比赛的开始至关重要。运动员面朝前坐在雪橇上，用手推离，并在手套的帮助下尽可能快地前进，手套上有钉子可以扒住冰面。当运动员从冰场的拐角处弹出后，就开始用小腿掌握方向。
It can be a dangerous sport. In 2010, the day before the Olympic competition began in Canada, Nodar Kumaritashvili of Georgia flew off the track in a training run and crashed into a steel beam. He was killed.
这是一项相当危险的运动。 2010 年，在加拿大温哥华冬奥会比赛开始的前一天，格鲁吉亚的诺达尔·库马里塔什维利在一次训练中飞出赛道，撞上了一根钢梁，不幸离世。
The favorite in the doubles is Germany. The relay favorite is Germany. The men’s favorite is Johannes Ludwig of Germany. The women’s side, though, should be a razor-close battle between another German, Julia Taubitz, and an Austrian, Madeleine Egle.
双人雪橇项目的夺冠热门是德国队。雪橇团体接力项目的热门还是德国队。男子单人雪橇项目中，德国的约翰内斯·路德维希呼声最高。不过，女子雪橇应该是德国运动员朱莉娅·塔比茨（Julia Taubitz） 和奥地利运动员 玛德琳·埃格尔(Madeleine Egle) 之间的激烈角逐。
The United States has done all right in the relay in the World Cup this season and could surprise with a medal. Americans have won six Olympic luge medals, but no golds.
美国在本赛季的世界杯接力赛中表现不错，可能会出人意料地获得一枚奖牌。美国人赢得了六枚奥运无舵雪橇奖牌，但没有获得过金牌。
In skeleton, the sledders lie on their stomachs and careen down the course headfirst. After cameos at the St. Moritz Olympics in 1928 and 1948, skeleton joined the Games permanently in 2002.
在钢架雪车项目中，运动员趴在雪车上，头朝下滑下赛道。钢架雪车曾于 1928 年和 1948 年的圣莫里茨奥运会上进行过比赛， 2002 年，这项运动正式成为冬奥会比赛项目。
The unusual name may have arisen because the early sleds reminded some of skeletons, or from a corruption of a Norwegian word for sled, “kjaelke.”
之所以出现这个不寻常的名字，可能是因为早期的雪橇让人想起了一些骷髅，或者源自挪威语中“雪橇”一词“kjaelke”的误用。
Though steering accurately around the turns is important — sliders control the sled with small movements of their heads and shoulders — a lot of success or failure comes down to the start. It’s a matter of how fast can the sledders run 25 or so meters, and how efficiently can they convert that foot speed into speed on the course? To help them grip the ice at the start, athletes’ shoes have up to 300 tiny spikes on them.
尽管在转弯处准确转向很重要——运动员通过头部和肩膀的微小动作来控制雪橇——但很多成功或失败都从一开始就确定了。运动员在25 米左右的助跑距离内能跑多快，以及他们如何有效地将奔跑速度转化为赛道上的雪车速度，成为了制胜的关键。为了帮助他们在开始时抓住冰面，运动员的鞋子上有多达 300 个小尖刺。
Because sledders are going headfirst, skeleton creates a particular danger of head injuries.
因为在钢架雪车运动中，运动员是头朝前的，所以会使头部受伤的风险大大增加。
One man — Martins Dukurs of Latvia — has dominated skeleton, winning 11 of 13 World Cups since 2010. But he has found frustration at the Olympics. He was the favorite at both the 2010 Vancouver Games and 2014 Sochi Olympics, and in both cases he finished second to a slider with home-ice advantage. In 2018 he was fourth. Nonetheless, at age 37, he is favored to finally get his gold this year.
自 2010 年以来，拉脱维亚的马丁斯·杜库尔 (Martins Dukurs) 一直统治着钢架雪车项目，赢得了 13 次世界杯中的 11 次。但他在奥运会上的成绩就要逊色一些。他在 2010 年温哥华奥运会和 2014 年索契奥运会上都是夺冠热门，但在这两次奥运会上，他都以主场优势获得了第二名。 2018年，他只得到了第四名。尽管如此，37岁的马丁斯仍有望在今年最终获得金牌。