skeleton, in winter sports, a type of small, very low, steel-frame sled on which one person, lying face down, slides headfirst down snowy hillsides or down steeply banked, curving, iced chutes similar to those used in luge and bobsledding. Steering is accomplished by shifting weight or dragging the feet. Originally called tobogganing, skeleton was invented in St. Moritz, Switzerland, in the late 19th cent. It was an event in the Winter Olympic Games in 1928 and 1948, when the games were held in St. Moritz, and again in 2002.