From La Plagne, FRA
(December 9, 2023) – Switzerland’s Michael Vogt had been close to the top of the podium many times, with ten two-man bobsled medals leading up to the World Cup’s second stop of the season in La Plagne.
He finally broke through on Saturday.
Vogt trailed world champion Johannes Lochner by .03 after the first heat, with the United States’ Frank Del Duca and Germany’s Francesco Friedrich both in the hunt for medals as well.
In the second heat Friedrich leapfrogged Del Duca with a run that mirrored his first heat’s effort to move into the medals with Vogt and Lochner still to go.
Vogt went next, and he and brakeman Sandro Michel both picked up their start time by .03 and downtime by .01 to move into the lead ahead of Friedrich.
Lochner and brakeman Georg Fleischhauer’s second run started strong, with a heat-fastest push. A small issue early set Lochner back, but he was unable to rally as Lochner crossed .07 behind Vogt for silver.
The win for Vogt was his first career World Cup gold medal to give him 11 total in two-man.
Del Duca and Hakeem Abdul-Saboor took fourth, .14 out of the medals. It was a career-best finish in two-man bobsled for Del Duca either on the front or back of the sled.
Germany’s Adam and Issam Ammour finished fifth, ahead of Switzerland’s Cedric Follador and Gregory Jones in sixth.
Results:
| Pos | Names | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Vogt / Michel | SUI | 4 | 5.97 | 5.94 | 59.26 | 59.25 | 1:58.52 |
| 2 | Lochner / Fleischhauer | GER | 10 | 5.91 | 5.92 | 59.23 | 59.35 | 1:58.58 |
| 3 | Friedrich / Margis | GER | 5 | 6.08 | 5.97 | 59.49 | 59.45 | 1:57.94 |
| 4 | Del Duca / Abdul-Saboor | USA | 2 | 6.08 | 6.09 | 59.37 | 59.71 | 1:59.08 |
| 5 | Ammour / Ammour | GER | 17 | 5.96 | 5.97 | 59.85 | 59.58 | 1:59.43 |
| 6 | Follador / Jones | SUI | 7 | 6.13 | 6.11 | 59.76 | 59.88 | 1:59.64 |
| 7 | Baumgartner / Mircea | ITA | 6 | 6.08 | 6.03 | 59.85 | 59.83 | 1:59.68 |
| 8 | Friedli / Haas | SUI | 8 | 6.03 | 6.06 | 59.80 | 59.92 | 1:59.72 |
| 9 | Tentea / Iordache | ROU | 1 | 6.13 | 6.12 | 59.82 | 59.90 | 1:59.72 |
| 10 | Treichl / Stepan | AUT | 9 | 6.02 | 6.04 | 59.70 | 60.11 | 1:59.81 |
| 11 | Cipulis / Miknis | LAT | 13 | 6.03 | 5.99 | 60.03 | 59.87 | 1:59.90 |
| 12 | Li / Wu | CHN | 12 | 6.06 | 6.05 | 59.99 | 59.94 | 1:59.93 |
| 13 | Vain / Riou | MON | 19 | 5.94 | 5.97 | 59.92 | 60.02 | 1:59.94 |
| 14 | Dvorak / Zalesky | CZE | 15 | 6.10 | 6.07 | 60.24 | 60.06 | 2:00.30 |
| 15 | Sun / Chen | CHN | 3 | 6.13 | 6.08 | 60.23 | 60.25 | 2:00.48 |
| 16 | Kalenda / Kleinbergs | LAT | 11 | 6.09 | 6.10 | 60.63 | 60.21 | 2:00.84 |
| 17 | Dobes / Dobes | CZE | 18 | 6.01 | 6.04 | 60.57 | 60.32 | 2:00.89 |
| 18 | Variola / Batti | ITA | 16 | 6.05 | 6.09 | 60.40 | 60.71 | 2:01.11 |
| 19 | Sobczyk / Sosna | POL | 14 | 6.19 | 6.22 | 60.33 | 61.09 | 2:02.42 |
