From Beijing, CHN
(February 14, 2022) – Francesco Friedrich has dominated the two-man bobsled landscape over the past four seasons winning more times than he hasn’t and usually winning by a large amount. After two runs in the 2022 Winter Olympics Friedrich is once again in the lead, but only by a slim margin over his teammate.
Though Friedrich set the start record alongside Thorsten Margis, and had the track record in the first heat, it was teammate Johannes Lochner who set the quick time in the second heat to close the gap to within .15. In a heat where everyone else’s second run was on average a quarter second slower, Lochner and brakeman Florian Bauer nearly matched his first run time to close the gap to Friedrich.
After his second run, Friedrich said that while he was happy with the lead, he left a lot out there.
“Yeah, with the first run we’re happy. The second run we made a mistake outside Corner 6 and outside Corner 12 that we have to fix tomorrow.” He added “The second run must be better tomorrow, we’ll give all we can.”
Given Friedrich’s history, Lochner knows he will have to stay perfect to beat his teammate.
“That’s the problem. There’s Francesco and he always wins,” Lochner lamented after his second run. “So we are not allowed to make any mistake. We need to improve our start time and I need to improve my steering down the track. You can see on the track that every mistake makes big time difference. It will be exciting tomorrow.”
Barring disaster for the Germans, it’s a two-sled race for gold and silver, with a battle brewing behind the contenders for bronze. Russia’s Rostislav Gaitiukevich will enter the third heat in third place, only .05 ahead of Germany’s Christoph Hafer. Austria’s Benjamin Maier and Switzerland’s Michael Vogt are tied for fifth, only .15 behind Gaitiukevich.
Canada’s Christopher Spring and Mike Evelyn were consistent at the start and had two good runs to show for it as they sit in eighth going into the third heat of two-man bobsled. Defending co-gold medalist Justin Kripps had two bumpy runs but still sits tenth despite them. Taylor Austin, making his first Olympic start, moved into the top 20 with a strong second run.
After the first two runs, Spring was happy with his effort.
“Coming into the race I really just wanted to put down some runs I was proud of,” Spring said. “Standing here now I’m proud of those runs. I’d say it was a success and we need to come back and do it again tomorrow.”
For the United States, Frank Del Duca Will enter the second heat in 15th place. He and brakeman Hakeem Abdul-Saboor had two top-ten starts on their way to the 15th place run after two heats. Teammate Hunter Church had the slowest run of the second heat after a long sideways skid killed his run early, as a result he fell from 25th to 28th.
Entering the race, Del Duca said he was inspired by his women’s bobsled teammates.
“[Kaillie Humphries and Elana Meyers Taylor] are so inspiring for what they do on and outside of the ice,” Del Duca said. “Just the way they carry themselves, the way they treat people and the standards they set for bobsledders and people in general.”
As for the race, Del Duca was pleased with his first two Olympic slides.
“I think we have some work to do at the start. I’m somewhat pleased with how we did as a whole.”
Great Britain’s Brad Hall is just .05 out of the top ten in 11th.
“It wasn’t the best two runs. It’s obviously not what we planned but we’re looking to come back strong tomorrow,” Hall said of his first two heats. “The exit of Curve 6 I had a little skid and after that the track goes kind of flat. I made a mistake there on both runs and that’s where it dropped us back.”
Results After Two Runs:
| Pos | Names | Nation | Bib | IBSF Rank | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Friedrich / Margis | GER | 4 | 1 | 4.95 | 4.94 | 59.02 | 59.36 | 1:58.38 |
| 2 | Lochner / Bauer | GER | 6 | 4 | 5.01 | 4.97 | 59.26 | 59.27 | 1:58.53 |
| 3 | Gaitukevich / Laptev | ROC | 7 | 3 | 4.96 | 4.97 | 59.41 | 59.91 | 1:59.32 |
| 4 | Hafer / Sommer | GER | 9 | 6 | 5.11 | 5.12 | 59.44 | 59.93 | 1:59.37 |
| 5 | Vogt / Michel | SUI | 11 | 7 | 5.06 | 5.08 | 59.57 | 59.90 | 1:59.47 |
| 5 | Maier / Sammer | AUT | 14 | 11 | 5.06 | 5.04 | 59.51 | 59.96 | 1:59.47 |
| 7 | Rinaldi / Vain | MON | 1 | 37 | 5.05 | 5.08 | 59.62 | 59.90 | 1:59.52 |
| 8 | Spring / Evelyn | CAN | 15 | 15 | 5.04 | 5.05 | 59.54 | 60.03 | 1:59.57 |
| 9 | Kibermanis / Miknis | LAT | 12 | 8 | 4.98 | 4.97 | 59.65 | 59.94 | 1:59.59 |
| 10 | Kripps / Stones | CAN | 5 | 2 | 5.02 | 5.06 | 59.61 | 60.08 | 1:59.69 |
| 11 | Hall / Gleeson | GBR | 8 | 5 | 4.99 | 5.04 | 59.69 | 60.05 | 1:59.74 |
| 12 | Dvorak / Nosek | CZE | 24 | 31 | 5.07 | 5.09 | 59.90 | 60.04 | 1:59.94 |
| 13 | Heinrich / Hauteverille | FRA | 13 | 10 | 5.05 | 5.07 | 59.93 | 60.04 | 1:59.97 |
| 14 | Sun / Wu | CHN | 22 | 21 | 5.06 | 5.09 | 60.04 | 60.01 | 2:00.05 |
| 15 | Del Duca / Abdul-Saboor | USA | 17 | 13 | 5.04 | 5.06 | 59.87 | 60.22 | 2:00.09 |
| 16 | Won / Kim | KOR | 16 | 12 | 5.08 | 5.12 | 59.89 | 60.28 | 2:00.17 |
| 17 | Cipulis / Nemme | LAT | 20 | 19 | 5.00 | 5.05 | 60.00 | 60.24 | 2:00.24 |
| 18 | Tentea / Daroczi | ROU | 19 | 18 | 5.09 | 5.11 | 59.83 | 60.46 | 2:00.29 |
| 19 | Friedli / Haas | SUI | 10 | 9 | 5.07 | 5.14 | 59.97 | 60.37 | 2:00.34 |
| 20 | Austin / Sunderland | CAN | 18 | 16 | 5.17 | 5.18 | 60.11 | 60.41 | 2:00.52 |
| 21 | Baumgartner / Mircea | ITA | 26 | 30 | 5.16 | 5.23 | 60.08 | 60.47 | 2:00.55 |
| 22 | Li / Liu | CHN | 23 | 23 | 5.07 | 5.07 | 60.31 | 60.36 | 2:00.67 |
| 23 | Suk / Kim | KOR | 21 | 20 | 5.15 | 5.17 | 60.28 | 60.46 | 2:00.74 |
| 24 | de Bruin / Franjic | NED | 3 | 38 | 5.12 | 5.13 | 60.46 | 60.36 | 2:00.82 |
| 25 | Treichl / Glück | AUT | 25 | 33 | 5.09 | 5.14 | 60.42 | 60.52 | 2:00.94 |
| 26 | Andrianov / Zharovtsev | ROC | 2 | 25 | 5.20 | 5.23 | 60.24 | 60.75 | 2:00.99 |
| 27 | Brown / Marcano | TTO | 29 | 39 | 5.33 | 5.27 | 60.81 | 60.89 | 2:01.70 |
| 28 | Church / Volker | USA | 28 | 36 | 5.10 | 5.12 | 60.38 | 61.40 | 2:01.78 |
| 29 | Bindilatti / Martins | BRA | 27 | 32 | 5.16 | 5.21 | 61.11 | 61.36 | 2:02.47 |
| 30 | Stephens / Turgott | JAM | 30 | 41 | 5.18 | 5.21 | 61.23 | 61.35 | 2:02.58 |
