Bobsleigh and skeleton bring art to the fore at the Winter Olympic Games

The sports of bobsleigh and skeleton offer up a delectable dish of precision driving, explosive athleticism, and rocket-like speed as competitions get underway in Beijing. However, the two sports also offer up a unique side dish to that main course of athleticism: stunning artwork.

There will be no medals handed out for the artwork that adorns the outer face of the sleds making their way down the track at the Yanqing National Sliding Centre. No bonus points will be awarded for the striking helmet artwork in the skeleton either. However, both categories of artwork help provide a unique Olympic flavor to the sliding sports on offer at the Games.

In the adolescent years of the Olympic Games, art competitions once featured alongside athletic competitions as medal winning opportunities. Art competitions were last held at the 1948 Summer Olympic Games in London.

According to Olympedia, the lack of an international federation, waning public interest and rampant professionalism were among the reasons why artistic competitions were dropped from the Olympic Games.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that art left the Olympic Games. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has worked to feature art in different ways since artistic competitions were dropped from the Olympic program.

Art exhibitions, and most recently the Olympic Agora, have offered a chance for artistic works to feature alongside sporting competitions. However, bobsleigh and skeleton continue to provide an unexpected canvas for stunning graphic art at the Winter Olympics.

Owing to Rule 50 of the Olympic Charter, which includes a ban on commercial advertising and publicity on the uniforms and equipment of athletes, teams competing at the Winter Olympics must use non-commercial liveries and designs for their sleds.

This rule leads to artwork and graphics that depict National Olympic Committee (NOC) logos, designs incorporating national symbolism, or other stunning works of art chosen by the athletes or federations. It creates a competition that offers glorious feats of human ingenuity and athleticism, as well as a visual feast to complement the on-track action.

Artwork featured in the two sports at Beijing 2022 includes an homage to the Royal Canadian Navy by the Canadian team, traditional national themes by the Russian Olympic Committee and the United States, eye-catching geometric patterns by the Latvian, Brazilian, and Slovakian teams, artworks incorporating ferocious felines by the Czech and Korean teams, and some classy renditions of NOC logos by the French, British, and Monégasque teams.