Skeleton returned to the Olympic Winter Games on February 20 and the athletes celebrated in grand fashion, wishing each other well in warm-ups before laying down thrilling races that kept a noisy, sellout crowd of 15,000 warm through the falling snow.

None of the favorites managed to find their way to the top of the victory podium, but they didn't seem to care. Instead they cheered on their fellow racers and waited at the finish to congratulate them on their runs.

Rising out of this celebration of international camaraderie was the United States of America, which came in with scant medal hopes yet struck gold in the men's race behind Jim Shea, and gold and silver in the women's as Tristan Gale and Lea Ann Parsley slid past favorite Alex Coomber.

Gregor Staehli, the 1994 world champion from Switzerland who came out of retirement in 1999 when word arrived that skeleton would be a part of the 2002 Salt Lake Games, failed to win gold but was just as happy with his bronze medal behind Shea and silver medalist Martin Rettl of Austria. Better still, his beloved sport was back in the Games after a 54-year absence.

"We are a great family and celebrate today our Olympic comeback," said Staehli.

Shea's victory was bittersweet for the third-generation Olympian. A month ago he was planning to have his grandfather, Jack Shea, a double-gold-medalist at the 1932 Lake Placid Games, and his father, James Shea, an Olympian at the 1964 Innsbruck Games, trackside during the men's race. But on January 22 a traffic accident tragically claimed the life of Jack Shea.

Jim Shea carried his grandfather's spirit down the track with him, however, a picture of Jack tucked safely away in his helmet. Upon reaching the finish and realizing he had won gold, Shea pulled the lining out of his helmet, retrieved his grandfather's picture, and raised it to the crowd.

Like Staehli, Gale seemed just happy to be at the Olympics. On her last run down the Utah Olympic Park track she waved playfully at a television camera beaming the race worldwide before grabbing her sled and pushing it down the ice.

"I understand I'm at the Olympics, it's a huge deal," the 21-year-old from Salt Lake City said while trying to fully comprehend what she had just done. "I'm not quite ready to handle it yet."

Parsley showed no signs of a sore hamstring that hindered her at the U.S. Olympic Trials in December, laying down two runs that left her just a tenth-of-a-second behind Gale yet comfortably ahead of Coomber for the silver medal.

Although Coomber was the World Cup leader coming into the Olympics, she didn't seem concerned about the color of her medal. Instead, she was proud to give her island nation something to ponder.

"This is a great day for Great Britain," she said. "A lot of people have been critical of the team. But now we can say, 'Look what we have done today.'"

--Kurt Repanshek