Updated: June 07, 2011

For hundreds of years people have used sleds to travel across snowy distances. Tobogganing has inspired many different sledding sports, including the three Olympic events: bobsled, skeleton and luge.

Each of these games is conducted on slick ice tracks crafted for speed and difficulty. Typically, there are turns that make tracks more challenging to navigate, testing the skill of the sledding athletes. More than most events, the push start is the most important element of these competitions. Without a fast and solid start, a team's time is much slower.

The bobsled, which has been an Olympic event since the inception of the Winter Games, has the largest apparatus and most people in the women's and men's four-person competitions. The luge can be raced in singles and doubles. And, the skeleton, which has the smallest sled, is a solo event.

To learn more about these fast events that require major athletic ability check out the guide and quiz below.