More bobsledding

They were having an international bobsled competition at the Olympic Park, so I decided to wander back and try shooting the sport again. This time it was four-man, which I like better than two-man.

The teams would give their sleds a complete tune after every run.



It is fun to listen to these guys getting psyched up. Grunts. Shouts. Hopping around. Anything to help them explode with speed.



I notice that in a lot of the pictures, the pushers have both feet off the ground. I wonder if they are just hanging on for the ride. That's what I would have to do.



The Canadians must have a requirement to have drab, boring sleds.



By this point, they are going fast enough so that I would definitely be dragging along.



Between runs, they water the starting section of the track to smooth it back out. Helps that the temperatures never made it to 20. They were actually worried about the water freezing too quickly so it wouldn't be even.



And then you have the guy wandering along mushing snow and water onto the curves to smooth them out.



The Brazilians had a nice sled and great outfits. I gave them my best-dressed award, but they didn't seem interested. Look at the driver hopping in.



It almost looks like they tossed this driver up to the front.



And at the end they jam on the brakes. This part of the track gets really torn up, but it doesn't seem to bother anyone.



Tomorrow I will put up a rather humorous series on what happens when the start doesn't go as well as the team might hope.