USA Wins First Bobsled Gold Since 1948

Night Train whips them all:

W.H. Auden wrote a poem called Night Train about a train crossing the border and delivering mail. Driving the bobsled nicknamed Night Train, USA-1 pilot Steven Holcomb crossed the border and delivered a long-awaited gift: a U.S. Olympic gold in four-man bobsled Saturday for the first time since 1948.

USA-1's performance — with Holcomb driving near perfect and Justin Olsen, Steve Mesler and Curt Tomasevicz pushing the sled at the start — was poetry in high-speed motion.

Starting at 3,044 feet above sea level and dropping 472 vertical feet with speeds reaching 95 mph in less than minute on one of the fastest, most demanding and treacherous tracks in the world, USA-1 was the best sled over the course of four heats in two days at the Whistler Sliding Centre.

I had a piece the other day about the involvement of former NASCAR driver Geoff Bodine in the design of the US sleds. You can read that here, and the article about the win has this:

It hasn't exactly been bobsled futility since the 1948 Olympics when Francis Tyler won gold in St. Moritz, Switzerland. But close. The USA won silver in 1952 and bronze in 1956 and didn't win another four-man medal until 2002 in Salt Lake City.

"We were the dominant power in the sport, then nothing in the '60s, '70s, '80s and '90s," NBC analyst and former U.S. bobsledder John Morgan said.

That resurgence in 2002 coincides with former NASCAR driver and Daytona 500 winner Geoff Bodine's involvement starting before the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway. At first, Bodine wanted to build sleds that were made in America instead of buying them from European builders. He enlisted the help auto racing chassis designer Bob Cuneo and started the Bo-Dyn Project.

But after Lillehammer, Bodine conceded what he knew from his NASCAR days: "Once we built the sleds and put them in competition, then we figured, 'Hey, this is no fun unless you win,' " Bodine said.

When Night Train hit the track for the 2008-09 season, Holcomb and his team had a sled that could compete with other top bobsledding nations, namely Germany and Switzerland.

The USA also had a driver who could compete with Lange and push athletes who could compete with Germany's linebacker-sized pushers.

"When you've got great talent and great support like the Bo-Dyn Project and the coaching staff that's been there the last four years, that's where it starts," U.S. bobsled coach Brian Shimer said. "The U.S. bobsled federation has done it right. It's made our job pretty easy and made us look good. Steve is just a phenomenal talent on the hill."

Congrats to the team and the designers!