From Beijing, CHN
(February 19, 2022) – There isn’t much in the world of bobsled that Germany’s Francesco Friedrich hasn’t done in his career. He’s won everything there is to win, multiple times, and has broken more than his share of records along the way.
In the final sliding event in the 2022 Olympic Winter Games Friedrich made history once again as he became the first ever bobsled pilot to win both two-man and four-man gold medals in two straight Olympics.
But it wasn’t as easy as he’s made it look in previous races.
Friedrich carried only a .03 second advantage over teammate Johannes Lochner. Lochner had set the track record in the first heat, but Friedrich rallied back to take the lead into the overnight break. The remainder of the field was far enough back after two runs that it was a two-sled race.
On the third heat Friedrich opened up the lead over Lochner by another .17, giving him a .2 second advantage going into the fourth and final heat. On that final run Lochner set a time that would easily be good enough for silver, but Friedrich once again showed why there’s been nobody better as he set the quick time of the heat to win his fourth straight Olympic gold medal.
The final margin of victory was .37. The win for Friedrich gave Germany gold medals in nine of the ten sliding sport events, with Kaillie Humphries of the United States winning the other event.
When asked about what else there is to do in his career after setting yet another historic mark, Friedrich said it’s all he wants to do.
“We really enjoy doing what we do,” he said. “We’re extremely lucky that this is our profession and that we have such a passion for it. It’s not something that’s given to everyone in life, so every year, every competition we give it our absolute best. As long as we can do this we’ll continue to do it. And if that’s not possible anymore then we will move somewhere else and dedicate our time somewhere else.”
For Lochner, the silver medals were as good as gold.
“By in large I’m very happy,” Lochner said. “We weren’t too far off on the top, and with that we “only” were silver. Raking in a silver medal in the Olympic Games is great. This is just awesome. All of the heats were top notch and we’re now the vice-Olympic champions, which is great!”
Battling for the final medal in the Olympic sliding program was Canada’s Justin Kripps, Germany’s Christoph Hafer, and Latvia’s Oskars Kibermanis. Of the three, Kibermanis took his final run first, and while his run was quick, it wasn’t enough to move up the order as he finished his second Olympics in fifth place.
That left only Justin Kripps to try to avoid another German sweep of the men’s bobsled podium. Christoph Hafer, the two-man bronze medalist, set the second-quickest run of the heat to put the pressure on Kripps to set a nearly flawless run. Kripps answered with that nearly flawless run, and while it was slower than Hafer’s, it was only slower by .02, which was enough to give him a bronze medal and prevent the German sweep.
After the race Kripps said he was happy with his team’s performance in preventing a German podium sweep.
“It’s tough out there, the Germans obviously have some really great sleds,” he said. “I was happy with our performance in the four-man sled. We pushed well, I drove really well, and to be able to stop the German sweep was really incredible. It was a battle out there, and came down to the hundredth. I thought we did a great job.”
Hafer finished in fourth in his first Olympics four-man event.
Great Britain’s Brad Hall lingered around the top five across all four heats but eventually wound up sixth after a seventh quickest final run.
Christopher Spring had slid in two previous Olympic four-man bobsled races, but had never finished in the top ten. On what may be his final Olympic race, the Canadian finally broke into the top ten with a ninth place finish. He’d entered the third heat in 11th, but moved up to tenth after the third heat before eventually moving up to ninth.
Spring’s teammate Taylor Austin finished his first Olympic four-man race in 23rd.
The United States’ Hunter Church had excelled in the four-man bobsled over the course of the 2021/2022 season, but struggled in his first two heats and found himself in 13th entering the third run of competition. After his second run he said he’d be back and would improve on his first day’s effort. He backed that up by picking up a handful of spots to slide into the top ten after the fourth and final run.
“It feels really good to have said, ‘Tomorrow we’re coming back and we’re going in the top ten’, and to accomplish that goal, that means a lot more than anything,” Church said.
Teammate Frank Del Duca also moved up in his final run to finish 13th after entering the heat in 15th. The last run was the final one for two of his brakemen, Carlo Valdes and Jimmy Reed. Afterward, Del Duca said it being their final push was the extra motivation they needed.
“I think we came together before that last run,” Del Duca said. “It’s two of these guys’ last competitive push, so I think we just dug deep and gave it everything we had and we were able to pick off some people.”
Results:
| Pos | Names | Nation | Bib | IBSF Rank | Run 1 | Run 2 | Run 3 | Run 4 | Total |
| 1 | Friedrich / Margis / Bauer / Schüller | GER | 4 | 1 | 58.29 | 58.71 | 58.17 | 59.13 | 3:54.30 |
| 2 | Lochner / Bauer / Weber / Rasp | GER | 6 | 5 | 58.13 | 58.90 | 58.34 | 59.30 | 3:54.67 |
| 3 | Kripps / Sommer / Stones / Coakwell | CAN | 5 | 2 | 58.38 | 59.00 | 58.44 | 59.27 | 3:55.09 |
| 4 | Hafer / Salzer / Sommer / Schneider | GER | 12 | 11 | 58.60 | 58.95 | 58.35 | 59.25 | 3:55.15 |
| 5 | Kibermanis / Springis / Miknis / Nemme | LAT | 9 | 6 | 58.70 | 58.86 | 58.41 | 59.30 | 3:55.27 |
| 6 | Hall / Lawrence / Gleeson / Cackett | GBR | 8 | 4 | 58.60 | 59.09 | 58.65 | 59.38 | 3:55.72 |
| 7 | Gaitiukevich / Mordasov / Travkin / Laptev | ROC | 7 | 3 | 58.54 | 59.24 | 58.81 | 59.56 | 3:56.15 |
| 8 | Andrianov / Zaytsev / Zharovtsev / Lopin | ROC | 14 | 9 | 58.82 | 59.30 | 59.03 | 59.40 | 3:56.55 |
| 9 | Spring / Sorensen / Giguere / Evelyn | CAN | 15 | 13 | 59.10 | 59.33 | 59.10 | 59.46 | 3:56.99 |
| 10 | Church / Williamson / Horn / Volker | USA | 13 | 10 | 58.91 | 59.70 | 58.96 | 59.49 | 3:57.06 |
| 11 | Vogt / Rolli / Beieri / Michel | SUI | 11 | 7 | 59.23 | 59.22 | 59.18 | 69.44 | 3:57.07 |
| 12 | Maier / Stepan / Sammer / Huber | AUT | 10 | 8 | 58.76 | 59.46 | 59.17 | 60.10 | 3:57.49 |
| 13 | Del Duca / Valdes / Reed / Abdul-Saboor | USA | 17 | 14 | 59.26 | 59.56 | 59.39 | 59.44 | 3:57.65 |
| 13 | Tentea / Dobre / Daroczi / Radu | ROU | 2 | 30 | 58.87 | 59.55 | 59.30 | 59.93 | 3:57.65 |
| 15 | Baumgartner / Fantazzini / Verginer / Bilotti | ITA | 3 | 24 | 59.36 | 59.72 | 59.34 | 59.28 | 3:57.70 |
| 16 | Sun / Wu / Wu / Zhen | CHN | 25 | 31 | 59.38 | 59.65 | 59.47 | 59.47 | 3:57.97 |
| 17 | Li / Ding / Ye / Shi | CHN | 27 | 32 | 59.31 | 59.55 | 59.46 | 59.66 | 3:57.98 |
| 18 | Won / Kim / Jung / Kim | KOR | 20 | 19 | 59.45 | 59.60 | 59.38 | 59.59 | 3:58.02 |
| 19 | Heinrich / Lefebvre / Hauterville / Laporal | FRA | 18 | 16 | 59.29 | 59.53 | 59.29 | 60.06 | 3:58.17 |
| 20 | Bindilatti / da Silva / Jeronimo / Martins | BRA | 1 | 22 | 59.49 | 59.60 | 59.78 | 59.61 | 3:58.48 |
| 21 | Dvorak / Sindelar / Nosek / Zalesky | CZE | 21 | 26 | 59.71 | 59.80 | 59.65 | 2:59.16 | |
| 22 | Treichl / Glück / Mitterer / Eckschlager | AUT | 22 | 28 | 59.53 | 60.07 | 59.59 | 2:59.19 | |
| 23 | Austin / Sunderland / Patrician / Dearborn | CAN | 16 | 12 | 59.67 | 59.81 | 59.79 | 2:59.27 | |
| 24 | Friedli / Fässler / Baraun / Haas | SUI | 19 | 23 | 59.71 | 60.01 | 59.57 | 2:59.29 | |
| 25 | Suk / Kim / Kim / Shin | KOR | 24 | 18 | 59.74 | 60.31 | 59.91 | 2:59.96 | |
| 26 | de Bruin / Franjic / Franjic / Veenker | NED | 23 | 21 | 59.85 | 60.07 | 60.08 | 3:00.00 | |
| 27 | Variola / Mircea / Pagnini / Obou | ITA | 28 | 40 | 60.25 | 60.33 | 60.07 | 3:00.65 | |
| 28 | Stephens / Watson / Reid / Wekpe | JAM | 26 | 29 | 60.80 | 61.39 | 61.23 | 3:03.42 |
