Yanqing, 6 Feb (Xinhua) -- The first gold medal in the bobsleigh event at the Beijing Winter Olympics was born at the Yanqing National Bobsleigh Center on the evening of 6 February, and Germany's Johannes Ludwig won the championship podium with his perfect and stable performance to push many opponents to the championship podium, adding a gold medal to the German delegation.
Bobsleigh was officially established at the 1964 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck. According to the rules, after all the contestants have made three skates, the top 20 skates will perform the last round of skating, and the player with the least four rounds of skating time will win the championship. In the first two rounds of skating at the end of the 4th, Ludwig temporarily finished first with a time of 1:54.501.
The first to depart on the third round was Ludwig. He quickly got into race form and broke the track record held by himself again with a time of 57.043 seconds. He was followed by Austrian Second-placed Wolfgang Kindle in the first two rounds. Although he still did not catch up with the first-place Ludwig, the time of 57.117 seconds allowed him to bite his opponent tightly and keep the suspense of the championship in the final round.
In the final round of the slide, Kindle made his penultimate appearance. A strong desire to win the title allowed him to perform perfectly in the first half of the glide, but a small mistake in the final sprint slowed him down a bit, and he could only finish the final round with a time of 57.238 seconds, fixing his total time at 3:48.895. Ludwig, who made his last appearance, did not give his opponents any chance, and he finished the game cleanly, winning the championship with an overall time of 3:48.735.
"This gold medal means a lot to me, I've been in this sport for many years, I haven't qualified for the Olympics for a long time in the past, and it's been so long that I've finally done it. This gold medal also taught me that all these years of perseverance are completely worth it, so that my long-term efforts have finally paid off. Ludwig said.
Italian bobsledman Dominique Fischner finished third with a time of 3:49.686, filling the regret of missing the podium at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. Two-time Winter Olympics men's singles bobsleigh gold medalist felix Loch of Germany was fourth, while Pyeongchang winter champion David Greischer finished only 15th. Fan Duoyao, China's first bobsleigh race at the Winter Olympics, missed the final skate and finished 24th.
"I almost finished on the podium in Pyeongchang in 2018 and I'm really happy to get this bronze medal this time, which gives me more motivation to continue to compete more. The 2026 Winter Olympics will be held in Italy and I am confident of being on the podium again after 4 years because I have a good team. Fischner said.
After the men's single event, the first two rounds of the women's single event will begin on the 7th, and Wang Peixuan, a bobsleigh player from Shaanxi, will represent the Chinese team for the first time. The gold medal in women's single bobsleigh will be born on the evening of the 8th. (End)