2-Man Bobsled at the Utah Olympic Park

Yesterday I wrote up the Women's Skeleton event.  Today I'll describe the other competition I saw on Friday, the Men's 2-Man Bobsled. There were 28 teams from around the world, including 3 from the US. I'm sure this has been solved long ago, but it has to be interesting shipping something as large and important as your bobsled between Europe and the US. I've seen what the airlines, UPS and FedEx can all do to a package.

Before every run, there was a lot of prep work that occurred. Sharpening. Waxing. Polishing. Adjusting.  Everything was checked and double-checked, all for a 50 second run.

These guys are fast and strong.  It looks like the guy in back is just going to pick up the rear end of the sled and run with it.

To me, it seems that the hardest thing would be jumping into a moving sled wearing track spikes without slowing down the sled, falling out, or slashing your partner. They seem to do it effortlessly though.

This guy got some great air on his way in.

Once they are both in, the last piece of work is pulling in the push arm.

Then you just ride down the hill. No problems.  Well, except for the one sled that flipped.  That had to be exciting and it hurts me to have missed the pictures, but I was way up the hill when it happened.  Both athletes were able to walk away.

In the end, Americans ended up with first and second place, with only .03 seconds separating them. The winning team was piloted by Steve Holcomb, a gold medal winner at the last Olympics and a Park City resident.


- Steve Joyce