By Mitch Phillips
CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy, Feb 22 (Reuters) – After the relative disappointment of their luge and skeleton campaign in Cortina, Germany’s bobsledders produced a triumphant finale with a third successive sweep of the three team golds having missed a fourth title in the Monobob by a whisker.
Until Beijing four years ago no country had ever filled all three podium places in an Olympic bobsleigh race but Germany’s men have now done so for two Games in a row.
It was undoubtedly a hugely impressive display by Germany, who have firmly banished the pain of Sochi 2014 when they failed to win a medal, but it left the competition short on jeopardy or excitement, with only the Monobob and the battle for bronze in the Four-Man bringing any drama with last-run turnarounds.
Three golds from five in luge and none out of three in skeleton was something of a failure for the sliding superpower after they won every title in those events in Beijing and things did not get off to a great start in the Monobob.
Germany failed to medal in their first appearance four years ago but Laura Nolte seemed set to change that as she led after three runs on the testing Cortina track.
However, a final stutter opened the door for American Elana Meyers Taylor, at the age of 41, to finally win Olympic gold in her fifth Olympics after three silver and two bronze medals.
She won it by four hundredths of a second from Nolte, with defending champion Kaillie Humphries, 40, taking bronze for the U.S.
Nolte made amends by retaining her Two-Woman title in impressive style, again with Deborah Levi pushing behind her.
She again had a healthy lead after three runs but this time made no mistake to win by half a second from compatriot Lisa Buckwitz, a 2018 gold medallist as a brakewoman.
Humphries, who won the 2010 and 2014 golds for Canada but now represents the United States took bronze to take her Olympic medal tally to six – three for each country.
GERMANY DOMINATE TWO-MAN EVENT
There was not the slightest chink of light for any other nation in the Two-Man, an event where Germany had amazingly filled all three podium places in six of the seven World Cup races this season.
This time it was Johannes Lochner, who won two silvers in Beijing, on top of the podium and perennial champion Francesco Friedrich in second.
Lochner and Georg Fleischhauer dominated from start to finish, clocking the fastest time on every run, to end an incredible 1.34 seconds clear of Friedrich and Alexander Schuller. Adam Ammour and Alexander Schaller took bronze.
The same three pilots looked set to fill the podium places in the Four-Man for the first time ever but there was a final twist.
Lochner was a convincing winner for his second gold and double-defending champion Friedrich took another silver, but Michael Vogt spoiled the sweep by snatching bronze for Switzerland on the final run – their first medal in the event for 20 years.
Having previously won four golds pushing for Friedrich, Thorsten Margis took a record fifth behind Lochner.
Critics of the sport complain that Germany’s technological advantage makes them almost untouchable – other than in Monobob where everyone uses the same sled design – but Friedrich, whose four golds and two silvers now make him the most successful pilot in Olympic history, dismissed that view.
“If we look at the start times and we look at the lines that we drive on the ice and at the push, then the others don’t have to talk about our equipment,” he said after the Two-Man sweep.
“If they push fast, or faster than us, or they drive better than us, and they lose, then they can talk about the material. But until this point arrives, they have a lot of work to do.”
(Reporting by Mitch Phillips, editing by Ken Ferris)
