For our final “How to Slide” of these Olympic games we’re going to be talking how you get a hulking bobsled down the track. Depending on the sled, it will weigh anywhere from 360lbs/170kg (monobob) to 463 lbs/210kg (four-man) by itself and anywhere from 248kg/547lbs to 1,389/630kg with everyone loaded inside. Needless to say, it takes a lot to get a bobsled off the top of the track and down safely, so we chatted with three-time Olympian Nick Cunningham about the technique to get a sled down fast and safe.
But first, some lingo:
D-rings: What the pilots steer with. In old days it was a big steering wheel.
Runners: Highly polished steel on which the sled rides down on. A bobsled has four independent runners
Kreisel: A full circle turn, can go anywhere from 270 to 360 degrees. The one in Beijing is 360.
Pressure: The g-forces in which a slider feels in the curves
Spikes: The shoes a bobsledder wears to grip the ice when pushing the sled.
Brake: A set of large metal teeth used to stop the sled. The teeth are attached to handles that the brakemen pull to stop the sled.
Getting Ready to Slide
Like their luge and skeleton counterparts, bobsledders have a routine they go through before their trip down the track. Some athletes want to visualize the track, others want to clear their mind. For Nick Cunningham, the prerace routine involved both getting he and his team ready.
“When I put my hands down, right before we do our cadence I typically say two things: I usually say “no excuses, do your job”, then “let’s have some fun”, Cunningham explains. “The “no excuses, do your job” is for my brakemen, basically to not be that guy making excuses when we get to the bottom. “Oh, I pushed too far, I pulled back…”, just don’t be that guy and do your job! The “let’s have some fun” is for me. I have to audibly say that out loud for me to kind of understand what I’m doing. I’m sledding down a hill at 95 miles per hour, have some fun with it right?! The sport is stressful enough when you’re losing and winning races by a hundredth of a second, enjoy it.”
After those reminders, Cunningham really wants to instill a sense of calmness for he and his team. As he says, stressing out over the run can only hurt the team.
“I need to be calm, my brakemen are looking at me…if they see me stressing out they’re going to be stressed out. When they see me I want them to gain confidence, not lose confidence. So I stand there and I’m talkative and I’m having a good time and enjoying myself.”
Away We Go
Every team has their own cadance, the routine immediately before the team pushes off. It’s important for the bobsledders to all begin pushing at the same time, the harder they push at once the easier and quicker the sled will travel during the push.
You’ll hear some kind of routine, then a lot of yelling by fans as the team pushes off. Then it’s time to get into the sled. For a bobsled pilot, there’s a sense of when they need to be in the sled.
“I just need to understand when I’m maxed out in speed the brakeman still has a few more steps to go. If I’m in that “overspeed” phase, I’ve just strung my brakeman out. He’ll need to take another four or five steps to get into the sled, and regardless of how fast they are they’re going to have to pull themselves into the sled instead of a jump to get that velocity moving forward. So I try to go right to where I’m almost at max speed then I’ll jump in, and that’s kind of the beauty of being a driver. I get guys faster than me behind me so I can go my top speed and not have to leave them out to be strung out.”
The team will jump in the sled in a particular order. For four-man bobsled it’s the pilot, one of the side push athletes, then the other, then then brakeman. In two-man it’s the pilot first and then the brakeman. One of the hazards of being a bobsled pilot is that sometimes your brakeman is going to spike you.
“In four-man I might feel a foot slide past their peg but usually they’re pretty good about figuring it out. Sometimes they’re a little too close to me and their helmet will be pressing me forward, so I’ll give them a shot to the face and slam my head backwards! It sounds mean but typically they’re used to a light tap so I have to give them a good shot!”
“Two-man is the one where the brakeman will just pinch your back kind of right under your shoulder, right above the seat and just scrape right down from your shoulder. It’s the absolute worst, because right when it happens it takes you completely out of the moment and your only thought is “that really hurt man, that was really bad!” Hopefully I can start to drive back as that just took my mind completely off of where I’m at and what I’m doing.
How to Steer
Years ago, sleds were steered with a giant steering wheel just like you’d see on a tractor or car or something. Now every sled has a set of rings (called d-rings) attached to ropes that are pulled to steer the sled. The idea is that the ropes and rings allow for more minute steers for even more precision.
So where are these rings and how do you use them? As Cunningham explains, it’s up to the pilot as to where the rings go and how much input is used.
“I like my D-rings fairly close to my lap where I’m almost putting my wrists on my thighs. I don’t like holding a lot of rope, I don’t like having to do a lot of movements to pull my hands a long ways. I like my hands in my lap and small movements, what we call direct steering. So if I’m making a small movement the runners move a long way, it makes it so I can sit very close and give my brakemen a little extra room back there to get even lower, and I don’t have to pull the ropes very far.”
But it’s entirely up to each pilot, as everyone has their own preference.
“[USA bobsled legend] Steve Holcomb drove a pretty free steering, he was very free flowing and had a lot of rope that he would pull where I’m kind of the opposite. Codie [Bascue] is kind of the opposite as well, Frank [Del Duca] is right where I am. It’s all about preference though to how you feel the direct input.”
Steering is all based on pressure that pilots feel in the track as they go through the curves. How you react to those determine how successful your run will be.
So you think when you turn, the sled is going to go and you’re going to steer and put in the input. The pressures will always win when you’re on a rounded edge and you introduce pressure. If you steer and build up too much pressure in a kreisel the pressure is going to bring you back up to that roof. That’s the hardest thing for new pilots to understand: If that zero puts you in the middle, every bit of pressure you put into a steer, you’ll need to give that back. If you don’t you’re going to either skid out of the corner and have a bad exit, or you’re going to rise and flip out of the corner.
Your biggest curves are the kreisels, in Beijing there’s a 360 degree curve, and handling that is critical to a good run. But it varies from track to track on tour.
“Every kreisel is different. You go to Altenberg and Winterberg, you couldn’t have two different kreisels out there. One is super flat and slow and you’re just kind of going around. When you’re in Winterberg you can literally see the people ordering beers and partying in the middle. In Altenberg you go flying through there and you’re waving up and down the track and you’re trying to hit your marks perfectly or you’re going to crash on the exit.”
“So it’s a totally different vibe for each of them. Kreisels are usually the favorite part of any track for me because they’re just fun. You can feel the pressures and be in one turn for a while. You’re opening and closing your hand trying to get on the perfect line. So those are usually kind of my favorite thing, each one has their own unique features.”
Getting Into Trouble, Getting Out of Trouble
When a sled gets in trouble, usually it’s because something has happened where the driver has come out of the corner either too early or too late, and the sled will go into a skid. The best pilots can correct that skid just enough where it’s less of a problem than it otherwise could be.
“You try to give a slight counter steer. You don’t want to oversteer so much that you overcorrect, then you’re just snowballing out of control. Let’s say you’re back end is sliding out to the right and you sort of feel that pressure I’ll give my right rope a couple quick pulls to see if my back end will catch up and go in a straight line. Sometimes it’s just better to smoke a wall and see if it will straighten out the sled. Sometimes if you can do that it’s actually the way to go. Like the three to four transition in Lake Placid, if you can hit double bumps there it sets you up perfectly. But if you come out and you kind of tap front bumper then back bumper, then it kind of ruins you. So that kind of thing is risk-reward. So once you’re into a skid, you try to “encourage” the sled to go straight.”
Stopping This Thing
In the three sliding disciplines, only bobsleds actually have brakes. You can’t use the brakes prior to the finish line, because it’ll both chew up the track and earn you a disqualification. But once the sled crosses the line you’ll see the brakeman pop up and pull the brake back hard to try to slow up the sted. The brakes dig into the ice to slow the sled down.
So how do the brakemen know when to pull?
For me, I expect my brakemen to know the track. I’ll expect them to know when we’re getting across the finish line. Sometimes I’ll yell “brake” just as a security blanket. The only time I’ll do that with every trip is in Igls because of the sketchiness of the braking zone there. When we’re by the end they’ll have moved their hands off the handles to the brake handles, and when I yell “brake” they give it a tap then we go around that bendaway at the finish curve a little slower. Otherwise I don’t yell that much when it comes to the braking stretch.
