Australian skeleton athletes Michelle Steele and Emma Lincoln-Smith will slide head-first down "an elevator shaft with ice" at more than 130km/h as they test the 2010 Winter Olympic course on Thursday.

The pair are looking to qualify for the Winter Games over the year but, more importantly, get some quality time at the World Cup event on Vancouver's Whistler-Blackcomb track considered the fastest - and amongst the scariest - in the world.

While the two Australians have so far walked away from their sleds unscathed, several of the world's best sliders haven't been so lucky in training.

Defending Games champion Maya Pedersen-Bieri got ice burn and smashed her head on the track, Swiss teammate Jessica Kilian suffered kidney and abdomen trauma in a high-speed accident and there have also been a number of concussions.

"It's a very hyped-up track and with the speeds we are getting up to it's the fastest in the world," said Steele, who claimed a breakthrough World Cup silver medal in 2007 after finishing 13th at her maiden Winter Olympics in Turin.

"It's like nothing else we've had experience with before.

"Maya had a crash and that was the first of her career, another Swiss girl was having kidney problems. I'm not sure what it was but she was peeing blood.

"There's been some bad crashes this week."

With corners that drop the height of three-storey buildings and G-forces imparting five times the power of gravity on the sliders' bodies as they hurtle down a 1.5km track in less than a minute, Steele admits there's a certain amount of trepidation.

But it's something she's more than willing to accept.

"It's just part of the sport I think. It's always intimidating getting to a new track and trying to learn it and having to make mistakes to learn it," she said.

"It just brings another element into the competition - you've got to survive the track to be able to race on it and, as bad as that sounds, that's the reality of it."

Australian skeleton coach Terry Holland, who dubbed the track "an elevator shaft with ice", said it had the potential to get a bit ugly at the Games.

"I wouldn't be surprised if there are some candidates for the highlights reel on race day, I'm just going to have to make sure it's not us," he said.

Holland believes two Australian sliders will qualify for the Games in an expanded 20-woman field at Vancouver. To do so Australia will effectively have to rank in the top six countries by the end of the World Cup series next season.

"I think we'll give it a good shot," he said. "Barring any injury or accidents I'm betting on having two there."

He is less concerned about results at this World Cup than he is quality time on the track. And as for the Winter Olympics?

"It's going to be whoever can figure out a formula and not blink for four runs," he said.

Glenn Cullen
AAP