CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — Counting the World Cup season and the Milan Cortina Olympics, there were 24 medals up for grabs in two-man bobsledding this winter.
Germany won 23 of them — including the three shiniest ones.
For the second consecutive Olympics, it was a two-man bobsled sweep for the most powerful nation in sliding. Johannes Lochner, in what he says will be the next-to-last race of his international career, teamed with Georg Fleischhauer to finish the four-run competition on Tuesday night in 3 minutes, 39.70 seconds for his third career medal and first gold.
Lochner won by 1.34 seconds, the most lopsided margin in the Olympic two-man race in 46 years.
Francesco Friedrich, the gold medalist in two- and four-man at each of the last two Olympics, partnered with Alexander Schuller and was second in 3:41.04. Adam Ammour finished off the sweep, teaming with Alexander Schaller to win bronze in 3:41.52.
For the U.S., opening ceremony flagbearer Frank Del Duca and Josh Williamson were fourth in 3:41.96 — matching the second-best effort by an American two-man sled in 70 years. Steven Holcomb and Steven Langton won silver at the 2014 Sochi Games, and Todd Hays and Garrett Hines were fourth at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics.
The Romanian team of Mihai Tentea and George Iordache were fifth, matching that country’s best two-man Olympic finish since 1972.
The first sweep of an Olympic bobsled race was at the 2022 Beijing Games when Germany — with Friedrich first, Lochner second and Christoph Hafer third — took all three medals. They did the same this time, which shouldn’t be a surprise given the way the season went.
Britain’s Brad Hall got a bronze medal at the World Cup two-man race in St. Moritz, Switzerland, last month. Otherwise, every gold, silver and bronze went to the Germans this season.
And in this Olympic four-year cycle, Germany won 34 out of 35 two-man races at the World Cup, world championship and Olympic levels — taking 85 of a possible 105 medals.
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