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Germany's Friedrich writes history with Olympic bobsleigh double
Germany's Friedrich writes history with Olympic bobsleigh double
Francesco Friedrich made history Sunday by repeating his bobsleigh Olympic double as Germany signed off the Beijing Winter Games having won nine of the ten sliding events.
Germany's Friedrich is the first pilot to win back-to-back Olympic golds in two-man and four-man bobsleigh by defending the titles he won in Pyeongchang four years ago.
Having already taken the two-man gold Tuesday, Friedrich piloted his German crew of Thorsten Margis, Candy Bauer and Alexander Schueller to a winning time of 3min 54.30sec.
Fellow German pilot Johannes Lochner, who had won the first heat Saturday before Friedrich was fastest in the next three, had to settle for silver 0.37sec back.
Canadian pilot Justin Kripps came out on top in his tussle for bronze with Christoph Hafer, finishing just 0.06sec ahead of the German.
Kripps' bronze prevented the Germans again dominating the podium after they had swept the medals in the two-man bobsleigh Tuesday.
German racers ended up collecting 16 of the 30 medals up for grabs at the Yanqing National Sliding Centre.
As Christopher Grotheer accurately put it after gold in the men's skeleton last week "the Beijing track is a German track".
Only victory by USA racer Kaillie Humphries in the inaugural women's monobob stopped the Germans winning every single sliding event.
Friedrich's historic feat caps a glorious season for the 31-year-old, who won 14 of the 16 races on the World Cup circuit.
C.Pawlowski--GL
