Past Heroes: Skeleton racer Richard Bott

The latest in our series of Past Sporting Heroes remembers a pioneer of winter sport.

Born in Bideford in 1900, Richard Bott came from a family of sporting enthusiasts and made his mark with a sixth-placed finish in the men’s skeleton competition at the 1948 Winter Olympics in St Moritz.

Bott was educated at Winchester School and six generations of his family performed on the acclaimed Cresta Run in the Swiss resort. One of his ancestors, Arden Bott, was responsible for modifying the skeleton toboggan by adding metal runners.

The Bott Cup was launched on the Cresta Run in 1905 and Richard achieved the ultimate family prize by winning the trophy named after his predecessors in 1948. The previous year, he won the Curzon Cup.

The sport of skeleton is traced back to 1882, when English soldiers constructed a toboggan between the towns of Davos and Kloisters in Switzerland.

It was first included in the Olympic programme in 1928, returned for Bott’s outing in 1948 and was finally made a permanent fixture at the Winter Games from 2002. Even today, it is considered one of the most dangerous yet exhilarating sports, and a boy from Bideford was one if its first stars.