''I was in the finish curve, t-boned the right wall, flicked over to the left wall, cocked my back and really hurt my hip,'' Lincoln-Smith said.

''I was going a bit over 130km/h and my suit came out a bit worse for wear, it just burnt off. The ice burn just ripped the skin off my back.

''My friend was down there and just said, 'Em don't turn around', because she was picking all the suit out of my back. But I was lucky, it could've been a lot worse, no breaks or anything.''

Despite the scare, the 23-year-old Australian skeleton athlete is determined to return and conquer the course at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, Canada.

In skeleton racing, competitors use sleds to slide down bobsleigh or luge tracks.

For more, pick up a copy of today's Canberra Times