My name is neal wilkins. i was an active brtish skeleton slider representing the uk in 1980 -82. the reason quite simply why the sport never received recognition until this century: the soviet union and east germany dominated all sliding sports at this time and would not entertain what they considered a solely "capitalist elite" sport like skeleton on their program. they associatted skeleton with the rich of the cresta run in st moritz hence the sprot was tarnished in their opinion, i know i was involved in negotions at the early stage to convince the eastern bloc to take the sport on. go to british bob skeleton website for the history.