Who was the first woman to win an Olympic gold medal in skeleton?

Tristan Gale was the first woman to win an Olympic gold medal in skeleton, taking the inaugural women's title at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games.

Gale won the event at Utah Olympic Park on February 20, 2002. She completed two runs in a combined time of 1 minute 45.11 seconds, edging fellow American Lea Ann Parsley by 0.10 seconds. Great Britain's Alex Coomber won bronze. The event marked the return of women's skeleton to the Olympic program and its first appearance as a women's medal event.

Skeleton is a head-first sliding sport in which an athlete lies prone on a small sled. Competitors steer with subtle body movements and pressure from their shoulders, knees, and feet while racing down an iced track. Unlike bobsleigh, skeleton has no enclosed cockpit or separate brakeman.

Lizzy Yarnold later became the first athlete to win two Olympic skeleton gold medals, in 2014 and 2018. Amy Williams won Britain's 2010 title, while Maya Pedersen won Switzerland's gold in 2006. Those later champions are sometimes mistaken for the first Olympic women's winner.