Remember the feelings of thrill and terror when you launched your sled down a steep snow-covered hill? American Skeleton racer John Daly has been doing that competitively for 15 years, but his sled, which slides down an ice-covered bobsled using a pair of metal runners, can actually hit speeds of up to 90 miles per hour.
It’s hard to fathom what it’s like to hit speeds that fast outside of a motorized vehicle, so CNN’s Great Big Story series strapped a video camera to Daly’s helmet to capture one of his mile-long downhill runs. The results are a blur of flashing lights and turns that seem to come out of nowhere.
At 90 MPH, Daly experiences five Gs of force heading into the track’s banked corners, which makes his eight-pound head, sitting just an inch above the ice, feel like it weighs 40-pounds instead. Given how dangerous a mistake on the track can be, it makes you wonder if that gold medal is really worth it.
[YouTube]
