Germany sweeps two-man bobsled podium at second straight Games

From the second Johannes Lochner and his brakeman Georg Fleischhauer took their first run of the two-man bobsled competitors on Monday, it was apparent what the ultimate final result can be.

Lochner entered his third and last Olympic Games because the No. 1-ranked sled in each bobsled disciplines. He lived as much as his personal customary on Tuesday when his sled gained gold by an unbelievable margin of 1.34 seconds. It was the third Olympic medal however first gold for the 35-year-old.

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Lochner hadn’t topped a coaching session by greater than 0.19 seconds. But after Run 1, he was already up practically half a second. That lead doubled to eight tenths after Run 2 and from there, it snowballed.

It was an entire German sweep of the rostrum — Francesco Friedrich and Alexander Schuller secured silver, whereas Olympic debutants Adam Ammour and Alexander Schaller took bronze.

And if that outcome appears acquainted, it’s as a result of Germany has now swept the two-man podium for the second consecutive Olympic Games. At Beijing 2022, it was Friedrich on high and Lochner in 2nd.

The final nation to comb the medals in an occasion at consecutive Winter Games was additionally Germany — in ladies’s singles luge in 2002 and 2006.

The 35-year-old Friedrich, broadly thought to be one of many biggest bobsledders of all time, added a fifth Olympic medal to go together with his 4 golds.

The United States’ Frank Del Duca and Joshua Williamson completed in 4th, 0.44 seconds off a medal place. It was far and away Del Duca’s finest Olympic outcome after the Bethel, Maine, native completed thirteenth in each disciplines at Beijing 2022.

“I wish we did that fourth run four times, to be closer or in that medal spot,” Del Duca instructed reporters. “It may be very bittersweet as a result of it is a good outcome, and some years in the past we might be backflipping in pleasure.

“But I know that we’ve worked really hard, and we had the potential to medal,” he continued. “And I know how much support we have. I really wanted to get that medal for our support system as much, if not more than, as for us.”

Seeded eleventh coming into the Games, Romania’s Mihai Tentea drove his sled to an unbelievable Fifth-place end, eclipsing his best-ever end of sixteenth within the occasion by a large margin.