On the evening of February 10, the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics ushered in the final battle of the bobsleigh event at the National Bobsleigh Center "Snow Dragon" - the team relay competition. In the three previously concluded events, the German bobsleigh team won gold medals in the men's singles, women's singles and doubles competitions.
Tonight, the German team, consisting of men's singles champion Johannes Ludwig, women's singles champion Natalie Geisenberger and doubles champion Tobias Wendel/Tobias Alter, crushed all opponents with a strong strength advantage to win the track record of 3 minutes 03.406 seconds, achieving an "all-inclusive round" of the project's four gold medals. Austria finished second with a difference of 0.08 seconds and Latvia finished third. The Chinese team that competed for the first time ended up in 12th place.
Since the Bobsleigh Team Relay became an official event at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, germany has won the only two gold medals in the event. Head coach Norbert Locke was confident in the strength of his disciples before the game, and he was optimistic that his team would win the team championship representing the overall strength of the international bobsleigh world for the third time.
Prior to the addition of team relay events at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, the German team won three gold medals at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, including men's singles, women's singles and doubles. The former East German team took the lead in completing this feat at the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck and the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. It can be said that the German bobsleigh team has long played a dominant role in the Winter Olympic Games, and the team's accumulated championship heritage has made all competitors fearful.
At this Year's Beijing Winter Olympics, the Germans won 3 golds again, and if they can win tonight's team relay gold medal, they will complete the hegemony of four gold "all-inclusive rounds" for the second time after the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. The women's champions, Geisenberger and Wendel/Alter, will continue the saga of winning the "double gold" for the third time since winning two gold medals in the 2014 and 2018 Winter Olympics, individual and team. The three, also 34 years old, have been training together since the age of 13 and are currently the holders of the record for the most gold medals (5) in bobsleigh skaters.
Germany, the team with the most outstanding overall results in a single event, was scheduled to be the last to appear tonight, and after the first 13 teams were finished, the women's singles champion Geisenberger took to the departure zone, although the starting reaction time was not outstanding, but with the acceleration of the back, she finished in 1 minute 0.090. Ludwig was also very solid, finishing in 1:01.407, and after two sticks, Germany's overall score was still behind Austria, which was temporarily ranked first.
At this point, the legendary duo Wendel/Alter appeared, and the two reversed the situation after 3 turns, allowing the German team to surpass the Austrian team in an instant. Before the finish line, the two also experienced a thrilling edge, fortunately this small mistake did not affect the speed of the sleigh. In the end, the two finished the match in 1:01.909.
Germany also narrowly beat Austria by 0.08 seconds to win all four gold medals in the bobsleigh event.
The Chinese team sent Wang Peixuan, Fan Duoyao and Huang Yebo/Peng Junxuan to the team relay competition. The contestants in the 3 groups all played normally and did not make serious mistakes. He finished with a total time of 3:10.182 and ranked 12th.
Source Beijing Daily Client | Reporters Wang Yang and Guan Xin
Edited by Gao Chenchen
Process Editor Liu Weili