The men's skeleton competition at the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics began at the Cortina Sliding Centre on Feb 12 local time, with Zhejiang athlete Lin Qinwei making his Olympic debut.

Skeleton is a long-established winter sport in which athletes race headfirst down an ice track on a small sled, reaching speeds of 130 to 140 kilometers per hour.

Lin completed his two runs in 56.89 seconds and 56.33 seconds. The men's and women's individual skeleton events each consist of four runs, with medals to be decided in the early hours of Feb 14 and 15, Beijing time.

China has fielded five athletes — three men and two women — to compete in skeleton at the Games. Lin and women's competitor Liang Yuxin are both from Zhejiang.

Born in 1999, Lin initially trained as a 200-meter sprinter before switching to the triple jump and eventually transitioning to skeleton. He joined the national skeleton team in 2019 after being selected for his strong sprinting ability.

During the Beijing Winter Olympics, he served as a forerunner and said competing at the Olympics was his goal. In January 2025, Lin and teammate Zhao Dan won China's first World Cup title in the skeleton mixed team event at the IBSF World Cup in Winterberg, Germany.