Johannes Lochner wins Olympic 4-man bobsled gold over Francesco Friedrich
CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — Johannes Lochner went out on top, and Germany capped another dazzling Olympic display with another dominant bobsled show at the Milan Cortina Games.
Lochner — who announced his retirement months ago — capped his career with his second gold medal of these Olympics, winning the four-man event over two-time defending Olympic champion Francesco Friedrich by 0.57 seconds on Sunday in the final sliding event of these Games.
But it wasn’t a sweep: Switzerland got the bronze, with Michael Vogt overtaking Germany’s Adam Ammour in the fourth and final run to secure that third-place spot. Ammour settled for fourth.
Lochner’s four-run time was 3 minutes, 37.57 seconds. Friedrich finished in 3:38.14, Vogt in 3:38.64 and Ammour in 3:38.68.
Kris Horn had the top U.S. sled, finishing 11th with Caleb Furnell, Hunter Powell and Carsten Vissering in his sled. Frank Del Duca was 12th for the U.S., with Boone Niederhofer, Bryan Sosoo and Josh Williamson in his sled.
The final bobsled medal tally from bobsled at these Olympics: Germany 8, U.S. 3, Switzerland 1, everyone else in the world 0.
And the total from all three sliding sports — adding skeleton and luge — was just as one-sided.
Those final numbers: Germany 19, Austria 5, Italy 4, U.S. 4, Britain 2, Switzerland 1 and Latvia 1. If Lochner, Friedrich and Ammour were their own nation, they would have tied for the top spot in the sliding medal standings. They combined to win five themselves.
“We are all putting down a show,” said two-woman Olympic champion Laura Nolte, who won two of Germany’s nine bobsled medals in Cortina. “And it’s fun.”
Lochner became the seventh pilot to sweep both men’s bobsled events in an Olympics, joining Andrel Ostler (1952), Italy’s Eugenio Monti (1968), then-East Germany’s Meinhard Nehmer (1976), Hoppe (1984), Germany’s Andre Lange (2006), and Friedrich (2018 and 2022).
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AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics