ODAY Bermuda's sole athlete in the Torino Olympics will jump on his skeleton and fly down the dangerous icy track at Cesana Pariol at speeds reaching 85 miles per hour in an attempt to win the island's first-ever medal in the Winter Games.

Already the track, which had to be closed a year ago during a training period after a number of prospective Olympic athletes had accidents, has been a cause for worry this week. A number of athletes have ended up in hospital during the luge event which finished on Wednesday.

But the Turin Games organisers said the track, on which nine luge athletes have lost control and crashed, was not that dangerous.

"The track is challenging. It is not particularly risky," Games spokesman Giuseppe Gattino said a day after Canada's Meaghan Simister became a victim of the treacherous Cesana track.

The Canadian athlete left the track in an ambulance after crashing in Tuesday's penultimate run of the women's luge competition.

Simister, who crashed coming out of a curve on the bottom section of the course, was alert and conscious when she was taken away on a stretcher.

"It is a dangerous sport," Gattino added.

Nine athletes have crashed on the track, some during training and the rest during competition.

The International Olympic Committee said the track was created according to the requests and specifications of the International Luge Federation.

The oldest woman at the Turin Games, 52-year-old Anne Abernathy of the US Virgin Islands, missed her sixth Olympics after fracturing her right wrist in a training accident.

"I would never send my junior athletes here," said Abernathy, who is involved in coaching. "It's so fast down at the bottom that there's no room for error," she added. "I love this track but something has to be done, otherwise someone is going to get seriously hurt."

But Singleton is taking things as they come.

"It is a very challenging course and that does give me an advantage as I am more of a driver than a pusher," he said adding, "it is a tricky course and it will be tough."

Singleton's father, Derek, who is his manager during these Games said this week: "The course definitely gets very fast and technical at the bottom. It can be dangerous ? I have seen a few ladies crash this week in the luge and one broke her wrist but I also believe there have been quite a few injuries in other sports here which is too bad but . . ."

His son has also been treated very well by the hosts since arriving with the British team who Patrick has linked up with. "Things are going great ? they are taking good care of us. Patrick has been getting massages with the British team and an Austrian doctor has been helping him with his pelvic problem." Singleton has over the years been injured during training for the luge and skeleton ? something that obviously comes with the territory in these sports.

Of the training runs this week, Derek Singleton said: "Patrick has had some good ones and some not so good ones but that seems to be the case with all of the athletes here during training. But I know Patrick is ready for Friday's competition and the fact that he has been in two Winter Olympics before should be a great help to him."

Singleton agreed that competing in his third Olympics will make him more relaxed. He said: "Competing in two previous Olympics will help. I know I wasn't happy with the way I finished in Salt Lake City (where he crashed in the luge). I want to get a lot more out of these Games. The last year and a half have been nothing but solid work but I am reaping the benefits. I am going to go and enjoy myself and race the best I can. I have done what I have wanted to do and I will give it my best shot." In the previous two Olympics in Nagano, Japan and Salt Lake City, Utah, Singleton had to finely balance working for Bloomberg and training when he could.

But this time has been different.

He said: "In previous Games I was working as well as training but for these Games I have only been training for the past year and a half. Basically I have been a full-time athlete."

But while his counterparts in England, Germany, the United States and other countries which have a rich Winter Olympic tradition can just concentrate solely on their event, Singleton said he was very much alone in that he was responsible for many other things.

"As an athlete from a country which doesn't have much tradition in the Winter Olympics I am faced with a lot of challenges that other Winter Olympic athletes are not faced with. For instance I don't have a large federation backing me up and the skeleton or luge does not have a national sports programme in Bermuda!

"Government doesn't exactly say 'here is your team doctor, here is your coach'. I have to do it all by myself whereas the people like the athletes from the United States only have to focus on their race ? and that's it."

But the Bermudian slider is far from jealous or envious of those athletes who are wrapped up in cotton wool.

He said: "In many ways it has helped me not having all that big support system that athletes from the US and other big countries have. I have to manage everything by myself ? things like my finances and how to get from point A to point B with all my equipment ? and how to get there cheaply since I am on such a limited budget. And as far as having a skeleton federation behind me, well I run my own federation! I do it all myself. But what all these obstacles have done is make me learn a whole new set of skills ? skills I will use later in life ? skills that I would never have had the chance to learn so you have to look on the bright side of things. You can't stop and feel sorry for yourself just because you don't have a big team and federation behind you. You have to go out there and do it on your own and it has been a great experience for me. I have learned so many new skills other than sliding down a track. I have learned new responsibilities.

"Doing all these things for three Olympics have been a tremendous experience. And I find that if you are really passionate about something like I am about the luge and skeleton, you can achieve tremendous things. If I take the same passion and energy I have for the luge and skeleton into other areas of my life then I believe I will be a success ? at least I hope so."

Asked if he would ever advise another Bermudian to try out for a sport in the Winter Olympics, he said: "Yes, as long as they have the time, energy and passion for what they are doing. It has been a lot of hard work but I have no regrets."

Singleton is also happy with his Bermuda team in Italy. His manager is his father Derek while the Chef de Mission is Carol Bromby.

He said: "My dad has been with me for the last two Winter Olympic Games and so I couldn't ask for a better team than he and Carol who is a very efficient person and runs her own business. She has really got it together and her husband Peter is an Olympic athlete (in sailing) and she understands the needs of Olympic athletes."

Carol Bromby said: "I am really looking forward to it. I have never been to a Winter Olympics although I have been to three Summer Olympics that Peter has sailed in."

Bromby said that she came into the position as Chef de Mission "because I volunteered".

She added: "I am treasurer of the Bermuda Olympic Association. I started off as the sailing representative (at the BOA) and then got recruited to be on the executive. Then I volunteered to be Chef for these Olympics. I thought a small team would be good for my first experience."

As for the skeleton event, she said: "I had my first taste of it a year ago when I came out to Torino for a Chef's meeting. It was the first time I had ever seen a track and it is pretty incredible. They are going down that hill at such a high speed."

Singleton will be one of 27 athletes taking the two runs down the track today. He will be the 21st in line during both runs which will be started by a British athlete and finished by the athlete from the host nation, Italy.

All in all there are two athletes from Great Britain, one each from Switzerland, France, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, Latvia, Croatia, South Africa, Ireland, South Korea, Lebanon and Italy.

Austria has two sliders as do Japan and Germany while the Canadians and Americans each have the maximum of three skeleton athletes.