Australian Skeleton, Bobsleigh and Luge athletes have gone underground in Europe this week as they prepare to compete in crucial, final qualification races for the 2014 Olympic Winter Games. 

“Snowy night in Igls,” Michelle Steele posted on Twitter yesterday. Steele and her fellow Skeleton team members are in the Austrian resort along with the Bobsleigh athletes.

The men and women’s bobsleigh teams look likely to qualify in the 2-man and 4-man events and it is anticipated Australia will qualify two female skeleton sliders with Steele and Lucy Chaffer among the frontrunners. 

For John Farrow however, he will need to dig deep and produce an outstanding performance to improve his chances of qualification. 

“I know I can perform at this level and it’s finally great to get some proof and continue the drive to Sochi,” the Sydneysider said after a 12th place at the FIBT World Cup in St Moritz, Switzerland last weekend.

Steele and Chaffer are the first to slide, when the women compete at 2:30pm on Friday 17 January local time, which is in the early hours of Saturday morning in Australia. Farrow slides the following day at 10am, which is 8pm on Saturday night in Australia. 

After a major injury in 2011, in which Farrow ruptured his ACL, LCL, hamstring and popliteal tendon, the 31-year-old was fitted with a foot brace to support his condition of foot drop. Farrow no longer competes with the brace to prevent any potential protests. 

“I choose not to use it in the racing in case any protesting came about from its use and left me open to disqualification,” Farrow said. 

“Plus my goals are to be doing skeleton without it, so not using it helps me achieve my goals. Even if it is a little slower right now it will eventually get faster.”

Not long after Farrow competes, pilot Heath Spence and brakeman Duncan Harvey will slide down the same track, contesting the 2-man bobsleigh World Cup. 

“I am now starting to get excited!” Spence said from Igls, where he has only been once before.

“It's been a lot of hard work to get to this point.”

The following day, Sunday at 14:00 local time, two-time Olympians Astrid Radjenovic and Jana Pittman will contest the women’s 2-man bobsleigh. A few hours later Spence will slide down the track again with Harvey, Gareth Nichols and Lucas Mata in the 4-man event. 

Also competing on the weekend is Alex Ferlazzo. The 18-year-old, who has unofficially qualified for the 2014 Games in Luge is in Koniggsee, Germany.

He is competing in the Junior World Cup in what is his second and final event in which he must compete to fulfil the Olympic qualification requirements and finalise his spot on the Team.

Also in Koniggsee is fellow Luge competitor Ashley Cooney. The 18-year-old is still hopeful of the reallocation of Olympic quota places, which will occur from 20 – 24 January 2014, for her chance to compete in Sochi.