Veteran Becomes First Double Amputee To Take On The Skeleton

A hero soldier who lost both his legs in a bomb blast has become the first double amputee to take on the skeleton.

Royal Engineer Micky Yule took on powerlifting after he lost his limbs stepping on a Taliban IED and became the first Brit to win an Invictus Games gold medal in 2016.

But the Paralympian was looking for a new challenge and decided to defy a ban that prevents parasport athletes from taking on of the most dangerous winter sport - the skeleton.

Hurtling at speeds of more than 100mph an inch from the ice, the 39-year-old pitted himself against five-time world skeleton champion Martins Dukurs.

Remarkably he beat the Latvian skeleton racer, reigning champ by 0.02 seconds.

Speaking after his achievement, Mr Yule said: "On the final run, I said, 'This is the last time you’ll see me on a sled' and I meant it.

"That is the respect I have for Winter Sports."

He added: "I've always been a warrior. That's why I started watching sport.

"The Olympics and Paralympics inspired me to become a Paralympic powerlifter. You could say the Olympics saved my life.

"There's nothing like it - it's the best battling against the best.

"But my favourite is the Winter Games. Nobody is going to die running the 100m, but these guys on snow and ice, they risk their lives every single run.

"The sport that always looked the most dangerous and fastest to me was always the skeleton.

"Sliding downhill, face scraping against the ice; you never feel more alive than when you're staring death in the face. Trust me, I know."

He was leading a high-risk search team on a foot patrol in Afghanistan, stood on a pressure pad IED and lost both legs beneath the knee.

He represented Scotland at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in powerlifting, before competing at the Rio ­Paralympics and winning gold at the 2016 Invictus Games.

He is working towards competing at Tokyo 2020 - but took time out of training and put himself forward for the special international challenge last year.

Experts had to build a special sled because the veteran is twice the width of most competitors.

They tried running 'blades' to power his startup but, as it proved too dangerous, an engineer from the Williams F1 team made him a set of fan leg rocket boosters.

His 'boots' started his push off to get him up to the same speed of rival Dukurs - but they then switched off at the same time an able-bodied sportsman would jump on the board.

Micky then had to control all the steering and movement and, more importantly, hang on.

The challenge culminated in a two-heat race and Yule beat the professional slider's fastest run on the day by 0.02 seconds.

The reigning world champion beat Yule by 1.64 seconds in their first run, but the double amputee smashed his competitors time by 1.02 seconds in the second run.

However overall, due to skeleton scoring rules, this means that Dukurs beat Yule overall by 6/10ths of a second - but the veteran's fastest run was still quicker.

"It was just nuts," said the father-of-two.

"My fastest run beat his fastest run. I never thought I would be anywhere near him."

Cover picture courtesy of SWNS.