Sport: St. Moritz Sleigh Ride

The loudspeaker crackled in the crisp mountain air: "The next runner will be Bibbia." On a Swiss hilltop high above St. Moritz, Nino Bibbia, 35, a brawny Italian grocer, buckled on his crash helmet and goggles, carefully checked the heavy leather pads on his knees and elbows. He adjusted steel shields that guarded the back of each hand, then he threw himself onto a sled no bigger (3½ ft.) than a youngster's Flexible Flyer.

But this was no bellywhopping slide over a gentle snow-covered slope. On his beefed-up steel "skeleton," Bibbia was running down...