Drought ends

Germans take four-man gold; U.S. silver, bronze

Todd Hays drove the USA-1 sled to silver in 3:07.81. AP

PARK CITY, Utah (Ticker) -- The United States' 46-year drought in men's bobsled ended emphatically Saturday with silver and bronze medals in the four-man event at Utah Olympic Park.

The USA-1 sled piloted by Todd Hays finished .30 seconds behind Germany-2 with a four-run combined time of 3 minutes, 7.81 seconds. Right behind in third place was USA-2, driven by Brian Shimer.

Hays' sled had the lead after the first two runs on Friday, but a poor third trip down the course dropped it back to third, .29 seconds behind the German sled of Andre Lange.

"After the third run, we were like, 'What happened?'" Randy Jones of USA-1 said. "We lost four-tenths of a second just like that. In bobsled, that's an eternity. But we have it together and pulled it out."

Participating in his final Olympics, Shimer put his sled in front on the final run, but Hays bumped him to second with a mark of 47.33 seconds. When the Switzerland-1 sled of Martin Annen failed to beat either time, the Americans were guaranteed two medals. They became silver and bronze, however, when Lange posted a run of 47.32 seconds for a combined time of 3:07.51.

"We came out here wanting a medal of any color, it didn't matter," Hays said. "What an amazing ending. ... Losing in the two-man stings like nothing ever has, but we took that pain and put it into preparation. And here we are."

It was the third straight gold medal in this event for Germany, which may have locked up first place in the overall medal count for the Salt Lake City Games.

"I don't know what to say. We have to let it settle in for a while," Lange said. "We did not really believe that we could win because we were quite a bit behind. But we had an extraordinary third run, and now we have won."

Lange's sled was tied for second after Friday's competition, .09 seconds behind USA-1. While Hays' quartet struggled in its first run Saturday, Germany-2 had the best run of the day at 42.07 seconds.

"No, I can't tell you what I did because in four years it will be Torino and we are going to do it again," Lange joked. "No, seriously, I really can't tell. We've been so far behind and didn't give ourselves any chance anymore, and this just happened."

Nothing happened for Germany's Christoph Langen. The two-man gold medalist here and the four-man gold medalist four years ago in Nagano pulled out of Saturday's competition due to a foot injury.

"It's sort of a tragedy for Germany and for the bobsled scene," Lange said of his compatriot. "But we are happy to have saved the medal for Germany." Annen's Swiss sled struggled Saturday and finished fourth, .09 seconds behind USA-2 for the bronze. "I don't know what happened," said Annen, the two-man silver medalist. "It could be that it was the pressure. But we have to analyze this. It was not the weather, everybody had the same conditions. We have to try to make the best out of it."

 

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