Steven Holcomb piloted his USA-1 sled to a gold medal Saturday in men's Olympic four-man bobsled.
He may have done even more than that.
The U.S. team of Holcomb, Justin Olsen, Steve Mesler and Curtis Tomasevicz captured the first U.S. Olympic gold medal in men's bobsled in 62 years, springing new hope that the sport might catch on among Americans.
The USA-1 sled hurtled down the final run at Whistler Sliding Center in 51.52 seconds, only the third-fastest time in the final heat. But the last icy journey down the dangerous track for the sled they call "Night Train" was quick enough to end a more than six-decades drought.
"No more 62 years," said Holcomb. "Now it's going to be four years."
The Americans, who had won each of the first three heats, beat the Germany-1 sled by .38 seconds to capture the first Olympic gold medal in bobsled for the U.S. since Jill Bakken and Vonetta Flowers won the women's competition at Salt Lake City in 2002.
But it was the first U.S. victory in Olympic men's bobsled since the 1948 St. Moritz Games.
"It's hopefully going to get some recognition for the sport," said Mike Kohn, pilot of the USA-3 sled that finished 13th. Kohn made his comments before Holcomb's Night Train even hit the track for its final run.
That's how confident the Americans were.
Even Geoff Bodine, the former Daytona 500 winner who helped build the U.S. sleds, envisioned a gold medal. Especially since Holcomb and his teammates had looked so impressive while building a nearly half-second lead over the Canada-1 sled after the first three heats.
He likened it to being in the middle of the pack at Talladega, going 200 mph, finding out what kind of nerves you have.
"I've had a big lead on the whole field and then the caution flag comes out and the field bunches up," said Bodine. "That's when confidence comes in."
"Team Holcomb has the confidence to keep doing what they are doing," he said.
Holcomb and his crew proved it on the track, posting the fastest times over each of the first three heats to build their lead, and then coming through with a good enough run to seal the win.
Their final time was 3 minutes, 24.46 seconds.
It was the 36th overall medal for the U.S. in Vancouver, matching the all-time Winter Olympics record set by Germany in 2002. The U.S. is guaranteed another medal after the men's ice hockey final on Sunday.
Holcomb, who had corrective eye surgery last year to fix a degenerative disease that left him almost blind, said he envisioned the gold in 1994. He has piloted the two- and four-man bobsleds in the last two Olympics and now finally has his medal.
"We've been working so hard the last four years and it's finally paid off," he said.
Piloted by Andre Lange, Germany-1 finished .38 seconds back for the silver. The Canada-1 sled piloted by Lyndon Rush took the bronze, just .01 seconds behind the Germans. It was the first Olympic medal in four-man bobsled for Canada in 46 years.
The second sleds for Germany and Canada finished fourth and fifth, respectively.
Posted on Sat, Feb. 27, 2010 05:57 PM
Read more: U.S. wins first men's bobsled gold in 62 years - KansasCity.com
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