WinterSports2002.com - Olympic highlights

WinterSports2002.com, Wednesday, October 31, 2001

Olympic highlights

1. A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS: As a member of the United States' four-man bobsled team that won the gold at the 1932 Lake Placid Games, Eddie Eagan became the first and only person to win gold medals at both the Summer and Winter Olympics. Eagan had captured a boxing gold medal in the light heavyweight division at the 1920 Antwerp Summer Games.

2. THREE PAIR: Italy's Eugenio Monti finished a 12-year Olympic career in golden fashion, winning the two-man and four-man golds at the 1968 Grenoble Games. He had already collected two silvers at the 1956 Cortina d'Ampezzo Games and two bronzes at the 1964 Innsbruck Games. Monti and teammate

Luciano De Paolis actually tied for first with a German squad in the 1968

two-man; however, the Italians were awarded the gold for posting the

fastest single-heat time in the four-run event.

3. ALL TIED UP - AND LOVIN' IT: The two-man event was so closed going into the final run at the 1998 Nagano Games that the drivers of the two sleds

leading the field - Pierre Lueders of Canada I and Guenther Huber of Italy

I - joked about sharing the gold medal. It became no laughing matter as both walked away a winner. The two tied for first with identical four-run times of three minutes, 37.24 seconds, and a rule change from several decades previous allowed for a first-place tie in Olympic bobsled. Not only was it the first Olympic bobsled gold medal to be shared, but it was one of the few Winter Olympic events ever to have a dual gold awarded.

4. TWO BY FOURS: East Germany's Bernhard Germeshuasen and Meinhard Nehmer each collected four medals from two Olympics in a four-year span. Both collected golds as members of the winning East German four-man team at the 1976

Innsbruck and 1980 Lake Placid Games. The combined for the gold in the

two-man at Innsbruck and then split into separate two-man squads in 1980,

with Germeshausen earning a silver and Nehmer a bronze.

5. OH, SO CLOSE: Once a bobsled mainstay by collecting 14 medals (five golds, four silvers and five bronzes) from 1928 to 1956, the United States hasn't won a medal in the sport in nearly a half-century. Adding fuel to the frustrations are the near-misses - numerous fifth- and sixth-place finishes

from 1964 to 1984, where sleds were .43 to 1.97 seconds out of medal contention; while the two-man tandem of driver Brian Shimer and NFL great

Herschel Walker finished seventh at the 1992 Albertville Games, .32 seconds

away from a bronze. The oh-so-close finishes, however, have come in the

four-man - USA I was fourth at the 1988 Calgary Games, .02 seconds from a

bronze and USA I was fifth at the 1998 Nagano Games, .02 seconds from

being a third team to tie with Great Britain and France for the bronze

medal.

6. REGGAE ICE ROCKET: The 1988 Calgary Games witnessed the influx of the warm-weather squads, with the likes of Jamaica, Mexico, Virgin Islands and

Netherlands Antilles and others, all of which combined to create their own

"Caribbean Cup" competition during the Olympics. Besides being an initial

laughingstock, Jamaica became a high-profile bobsled entity, thanks to its

role in U.S. advertising campaigns and a full-length semi-biographical film

"Cool Runnings." In 1994, Jamaica had improved to a 14th-place finish in

the four-man event - and ahead of both U.S. teams.

7. A WOMAN'S PLACE IS IN THE SLED: Women have competed in bobsled over the years - as evidenced that Katherine Dewey won the 1938 U.S. National

Championship. However, women were not allowed to compete in the Winter

Olympics - until women's two-person bobsled earned medal-sport distinction

for the 2002 Salt Lake Games.

8. SIBLING COMPETITION: How much separates two brothers? In the case of the two-man event at the 1994 Lillehammer Games, it was a mere .05 seconds. Switzerland's Donat Acklin was the brakeman on the winning two-man tandem

that successfully defended its Olympic title from the 1992 Albertville Games. Meanwhile, brother Guido Acklin was in the rear seat of a fellow Swiss squad that took second in the '94 race. Donat Acklin also claimed a bronze and a silver in the four-man events in 1992 and 1994.

9. OLYMPIC ABSENCE: Neither the two-man nor four-man bobsled was contested at the 1960 Squaw Valley Games. With only nine nations planning on sending sleds, the overly cost-conscious organizers opted to not construct a bobsled track.

10. TORCHING THE COMPETITION: The Stevens brothers - J. Hubert and Curtis - won the inaugural two-man event at the 1932 Lake Placid Games, coming from more than six seconds behind after the first of four runs. Their eclectic pre-race routine included a 25-minute heating of their sled's metal runners with a blowtorch - something that today would be illegal.