Two-man bobsled finals: How did Team USA do?

MILAN, Italy — Germany’s Johannes Lochner and Georg Fleischhauer won gold in the men’s two-man bobsled at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics on Tuesday, finishing four runs at Cortina Sliding Centre with a combined time of 3:39.70.

Germany completed a second straight Olympic podium sweep in the event, with Francesco Friedrich and Alexander Schuller taking silver in 3:41.04, and Adam Ammour and Alexander Schaller earning bronze in 3:41.52.

The United States’ lone sled, led by Frank Del Duca and Joshua Williamson, finished fourth in 3:41.96, just off the medals after entering the day a tenth of a second behind bronze. It’s a higher finish for Del Duca, who finished 13th in the race in Beijing in 2022. This was Williamson’s second Olympics, like Del Duca, but his first time competing in this event. 

Germany had been in the lead in the bobsledding event from the start. Lochner and Fleischhauer opened Monday’s first run by setting both a start record (4.78 seconds) and a track record (54.68), then extended their lead in Run 2 by nearly a full second.

Friedrich, the defending Olympic champion who was trying to win his third straight gold in the two-man event, never recovered from a bumpy opening run that dropped him behind Lochner.

Del Duca and Williamson briefly jumped into the lead during the final heat Tuesday afternoon, but the three German sleds followed and locked down the podium.

Lochner entered the Milan Cortina Games as the top-ranked World Cup pilot in both the two-man and four-man events. The gold medal is his first Olympic title after winning silver behind Friedrich at the 2022 Beijing Games.