From Beijing, CHN
(February 15, 2022) – After two runs of two-man bobsled Francesco Friedrich had given the field some hope that someone would beat him on the world’s largest stage, but Friedrich isn’t someone who gives away races very often, and he wasn’t about to in Beijing.
On their third run, Friedrich and brakeman Thorsten Margis broke their own start record on their way to a track record 58.99. So the pressure was on teammates Johannes Lochner and Florian Bauer, and while Lochner had a great drive the second German sled found themselves nearly a half of a second back.
From there it was all academic for Friedrich. Like two of the three before it, his fourth drive was the quickest of the heat and while it was just .01 quicker this time, it was still plenty enough to give Friedrich his second straight two-man bobsled.
After being out-driven by Lochner in the second heat, Friedrich said he had to battle back in the third run.
“Today in the third run we said we have to fight,” Friedrich said. “We have to attack Hansi [Lochner] so that we can make the distance back up.” He added “It was so great to come in the finish in the third run and see the 58.99, a track record.”
Johannes Lochner, who had won 19 two-man silver medals between World Cup and World Championship races behind Friedrich, once again finished second behind the Olympic champ. All four of his drives with Florian Bauer on his brakes were top two efforts.
On finishing behind Friedrich so often, Lochner said “It’s hard. He’s always on top, he’s always performing his best. I need a new way and maybe I will find a new way in the 4-man next.”
Christoph Hafer helped close out the German sweep of the podium with Matthias Sommer on his brakes. Hafer struggled on his second run, but had the third quickest drive in both of his final two runs to solidify his bronze medal.
The all-German podium was the first ever podium sweep in Olympic bobsled history.
On the sweep, Hafer said it was an outstanding feeling for Germany to sweep the podium.
“Of course it’s simply incredible,” Hafer said. “This is my first medal…same for Johannes…all of us on the podium is something that hasn’t fully sank in yet. This is just amazing!”
Switzerland’s Michael Vogt and Sandro Michel finished just off of the podium in fourth place with three of his four drives in the top five. Benjamin Maier entered the second day of sliding tied with Vogt but couldn’t match the Swiss pilot’s pace on Tuesday and finished fifth.
Rudy Rinaldi, who’d overcome injuries over the prior few seasons to get back to the Olympics, finished sixth after entering the final heat in fifth place.
Afterward, Rinaldi had mixed emotions about his race, which was Monaco’s best ever Olympic finish.
“I was happy until the last run,” Rinaldi said. ” I’m not sad of the result, exactly. If you had told me two years ago that I would be fighting for a podium I wouldn’t have believed you. This may have been my last race so I wanted to finish with a good run, but I didn’t. So I’m a bit sad, but I’m happy with this result.”
Christopher Spring was the top finishing Canadian in the two-man competition in seventh. Four quality runs by Spring, coupled with some late trouble by Russia’s Rostislav Gaitiukevich moved the Canadian up from eighth place after two runs.
Justin Kripps, one half of the co-gold medalists from Pyeongchang, never found his groove in the two-man race. He did manage to put two Canadian sleds in the top ten with a tenth place finish. Teammate Taylor Austin, who qualified the third Canadian sled through an outstanding North American Cup season, finished his first Olympic race in 20th place.
Great Britain’s Brad Hall crashed on his third run after a hard hit in Curve 13. His pace was quick enough, though, that he only dropped one spot after that third run. On fourth run Hall picked that spot back up plus one more to finish 11th.
Despite the crash in the third heat, Hall said getting back up for a fourth run was a no-brainer.
“After a crash,” Hall explained after his fourth run, “it’s happened to every single bobsledder – you have a crash, you’ve got to go straight back up there and do it again.”
On their third run, Frank Del Duca and Hakeem Abdul-Saboor made up for a bumpy second run and moved up from 15th to 12th. On their fourth run they fell back one spot behind Great Britain’s Hall to finish 13th. Hunter Church had a tough second run that set him well out of the top 20. His third run was much better, and enough to move him from 28th to 27th.
Del Duca was proud of the work he and his brakeman had put in.
“I liked the energy we brought to the start,” Del Duca said. “We got to do two race heats on two straight days and I thought we had just as much energy on that last one if not more than the first. It felt really good.”
Abdul-Saboor agreed with his pilot. “Frank did an awesome job,” Abdul Saboor said. “He gave it his all. I gave it my all.”
Results:
| Pos | Names | Nation | Bib | IBSF Rank | Run 1 | Run 2 | Run 3 | Run 4 | Total |
| 1 | Friedrich / Margis | GER | 4 | 1 | 59.02 | 59.36 | 58.99 | 59.52 | 3:56.89 |
| 2 | Lochner / Bauer | GER | 6 | 4 | 59.26 | 59.27 | 59.32 | 59.53 | 3:57.38 |
| 3 | Hafer / Sommer | GER | 9 | 6 | 59.44 | 59.93 | 59.51 | 59.70 | 3:58.58 |
| 4 | Vogt / Michel | SUI | 11 | 7 | 59.57 | 59.90 | 59.59 | 59.77 | 3:58.83 |
| 5 | Maier / Sammer | AUT | 14 | 11 | 59.51 | 59.96 | 59.64 | 60.01 | 3:59.12 |
| 6 | Rinaldi / Vain | MON | 1 | 37 | 59.62 | 59.90 | 59.57 | 60.05 | 3:59.14 |
| 7 | Spring / Evelyn | CAN | 15 | 15 | 59.54 | 60.03 | 59.76 | 59.93 | 3:59.26 |
| 8 | Gaitukevich / Laptev | ROC | 7 | 3 | 59.41 | 59.91 | 59.80 | 60.19 | 3:59.31 |
| 9 | Kibermanis / Miknis | LAT | 12 | 8 | 59.65 | 59.94 | 59.82 | 59.93 | 3:59.34 |
| 10 | Kripps / Stones | CAN | 5 | 2 | 59.61 | 60.08 | 59.71 | 60.00 | 3:59.40 |
| 11 | Hall / Gleeson | GBR | 8 | 5 | 59.69 | 60.05 | 60.22 | 59.96 | 3:59.92 |
| 12 | Heinrich / Hauteverille | FRA | 13 | 10 | 59.93 | 60.04 | 59.92 | 60.05 | 3:59.94 |
| 13 | Del Duca / Abdul-Saboor | USA | 17 | 13 | 59.87 | 60.22 | 59.86 | 60.15 | 4:00.10 |
| 14 | Sun / Wu | CHN | 22 | 21 | 60.04 | 60.01 | 59.99 | 60.25 | 4:00.29 |
| 15 | Dvorak / Nosek | CZE | 24 | 31 | 59.90 | 60.04 | 60.20 | 60.16 | 4:00.30 |
| 16 | Tentea / Daroczi | ROU | 19 | 18 | 59.83 | 60.46 | 60.19 | 60.28 | 4:00.76 |
| 17 | Cipulis / Nemme | LAT | 20 | 19 | 60.00 | 60.24 | 60.20 | 60.46 | 4:00.90 |
| 18 | Friedli / Haas | SUI | 10 | 9 | 59.97 | 60.37 | 60.47 | 60.34 | 4:01.15 |
| 19 | Won / Kim | KOR | 16 | 12 | 59.89 | 60.28 | 60.10 | 60.97 | 4:01.24 |
| 20 | Austin / Sunderland | CAN | 18 | 16 | 60.11 | 60.41 | 60.29 | 60.55 | 4:01.36 |
| 21 | Baumgartner / Mircea | ITA | 26 | 30 | 60.08 | 60.47 | 60.38 | 3:00.93 | |
| 22 | Li / Liu | CHN | 23 | 23 | 60.31 | 60.36 | 60.43 | 3:01.10 | |
| 23 | de Bruin / Franjic | NED | 3 | 38 | 60.46 | 60.36 | 60.35 | 3:01.17 | |
| 24 | Suk / Kim | KOR | 21 | 20 | 60.28 | 60.46 | 60.52 | 3:01.26 | |
| 25 | Andrianov / Zharovtsev | ROC | 2 | 25 | 60.24 | 60.75 | 60.55 | 3:01.54 | |
| 26 | Treichl / Glück | AUT | 25 | 33 | 60.42 | 60.52 | 60.66 | 3:01.60 | |
| 27 | Church / Volker | USA | 28 | 36 | 60.38 | 61.40 | 60.53 | 3:02.31 | |
| 28 | Brown / Marcano | TTO | 29 | 39 | 60.81 | 60.89 | 60.86 | 3:02.56 | |
| 29 | Bindilatti / Martins | BRA | 27 | 32 | 61.11 | 61.36 | 61.34 | 3:03.81 | |
| 30 | Stephens / Turgott | JAM | 30 | 41 | 61.23 | 61.35 | 61.54 | 3:04.12 |
