By Mitch Phillips
LONDON, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Germany’s Francesco Friedrich has the opportunity to become the most successful male bobsledder in Olympic history, while Canadian-turned American Kaillie Humphries,
already the owner of that title on the women’s side, can cement her star status on the newly built Olympics track at Cortina next month.
Friedrich, appearing in his fourth Winter Games, sits alongside three fellow Germans on four gold medals, but third overall on silver and bronze countback. He also has 18 World Championship golds and has taken seven of the last eight World Cups in four-man and six of the last 10 in two-man.
Friedrich, 35, plans to retire after the Olympics and focus on his career as a policeman.
His success has been part of a German men’s domination of the sport in recent years, which included a podium sweep in the two-man and a one-two in the four-man in Beijing.
As usual, Friedrich's main rivals for gold are likely to be his compatriots, probably in the form of Johannes Lochner.
He took double-silver in 2022, but arrives in Italy on the back of claiming the overall World Cup title after topping the two and four-man standings and with the advantage of having won both at the test event on the Cortina track in November.
He also plans to retire after the Games.
Another podium challenger should be German Adam Ammour who won the last two four-man World Cup events this month.
Hoping to break Germany's stranglehold will be Brad Hall, fourth in the World Cup standings and seeking what would be only a third bobsleigh medal for Britain in 60 years.
US AND GERMANY DOMINATE WOMEN'S BOBSLEIGH
Men’s bobsleigh was part of the inaugural Winter Olympics 100 years ago but women joined the party only in 2002, with monobob being introduced in 2022.
The U.S., Germany and Canada have won all but one of the 18 two-woman medals available, with Italy’s 2006 bronze the outlier.
Front and centre - for two of those countries - has been Humphries, who won two golds and a bronze for Canada before switching to the U.S. after bullying accusations and winning the first monobob gold in Beijing for her adopted country.
Things have not been going all her way in the World Cup this season, however, as she failed to make the podium in the first six rounds of the monobob, before finishing with victory in Altenburg in the final round. She was better in the two-woman and finished second in the combined standings.
Sitting above her was Germany’s Laura Nolte, who won five of her seven races in the two-woman and also topped the standings to complete a hat-trick of overall World Cup titles.
Fellow Germans Kim Kalicki and Lisa Buckwitz should also be in the mix, with Breeana Walker hoping to win a first bobsleigh medal for either sex for Australia having finished second in the World Cup monobob standings in the last three years.
Also on the Olympic start line for a fifth time will be America's 41-year-old five-times medallist Elana Meyers Taylor, accompanied by 23-year-old track and field athlete Jadin O’Brien who took up the sport only three months ago.
(Reporting by Mitch Phillips, editing by Ken Ferris)
