Friedrich Wins First Gold of the Season

From La Plagne, FRA

(December 10, 2023) – After what could be considered, by his standards anyway, a disappointing start to the IBSF World Cup season for Francesco Friedrich, the winningest bobsledder of all time finally took a gold medal in Race 3 of the four-man World Cup season.

After one run, Friedrich opened up a .26 second lead over teammate Adam Ammour, with Johannes Lochner in third only .04 behind Ammour.

In the second run, Lochner put down a time .26 quicker than his first to take the lead from reigning world championship silver medalist Emils Cipulis of Latvia. That time would hold up as Ammour couldn’t keep up with her German teammate.

The final team down was Team Friedrich, and once again they had the quick start of the heat, and were quickest at every split on their way to a .44 second victory over Team Lochner, with Ammour’s squad finishing third.

The gold medal gave Friedrich 28 gold medals in four-man bobsled, and 50 four-man medals overall. Lochner’s silver was his 11th in four-man bobsled action, while Ammour’s bronze came in his first four-man World Cup race.

A day after winning his first World Cup gold medal in two-man competition, Switzerland’s Michael Vogt finished fourth, .05 ahead of Cipulis in fifth.

Cedric Follador finished sixth.

The United States’ Frank Del Duca finished the first heat in 11th place, a tenth of a second out of the top ten. However during the team’s first run the sled broke, and Del Duca’s squad was unable to take a second run.

Results: