2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics: Bobsledding Miracle

Germany won the Gold Medal in the two-man bobsled event on February 19, 2018, at the Pyeongchang Olympics. Canada won the Gold Medal in the two-man bobsled event on February 19, 2018, at the Pyeongchang Olympics. If you think these two statements made in the previous two sentences contradict each other, I urge you to continue reading. Both two-man bobsledding teams tied in what can be referred to as a dead heat, so they both were awarded Gold Medals. This was the first time a tie had occurred in this sport in the twenty-first century. The German pilot was Francesco Friedrich, and the brakeman was Thorsten Margis. They finished their four runs at 3 minutes and 16.86 seconds in total. The Canadian pilot Justin Kripps and brakeman Alex Kopacz completed the same number of runs at the exact same time to the hundredth of a second. The pilot is the person steering the bobsled and the brakemen are those who start the motion of the sled. The brakemen do not lift their heads up after entering the sled until the end of the race. All four of them are now able to travel home from Pyeongchang with at least one Gold Medal and are still able to win another in the four-man competition that takes place in the ensuing days. This had been Friedrich’s first gold despite winning gold seven times at the World Championships beginning in 2011.

The United States may not have won any medals as third place went to Latvia, but the day was still viewed a success mainly due to Justin Olsen’s efforts. He drove a bobsled that made it into the top 20 even though he had had an emergency appendectomy less than a month before the race. He was a member of the Army National Guard and has consistently shown valiancy. Although originally doubted to compete, he did more than expected as he led the best US sled of the day. All in all, the slate of Bobsledding events throughout the day proved to be very interesting and exciting.

Photo Credit: Washington Post