Two great opportunities for USA gold
The first 2 heats of men’s 4-man bobsled were completed today. Steve Holcomb drove the much talked about “Night Train” sled to back-to-back record speeds on the challenging track. The USA-1 team finished in 1st place with a nice .4 second lead (doesn’t sound like much, but trust me, that’s good.) Tomorrows racing should be very exciting; if Holcomb keeps this up, he’ll score gold for sure. Still, Canada-1 is right behind them in second place and Germany-1 in third. John Napier in USA 2 flipped the sled on the difficult 50-50 curve, but thankfully, everyone walked away unharmed, though disappointed.
In men’s speed skating, the US three-man team surprised everyone by handily beating the much-favored team from the Netherlands. Made up of veteran Chad Hedrick and two 19-yr-old newcomers, Brian Hansen and Jonathan Kuck, the USA team looked liked they’d be defeated as predicted in the early laps. But communication problems between the Dutch team cost them the lead; the US barreling down the ice with the Dutch scrambling to regain the lead. The US managed to hang on, winning by .4 seconds and advancing to the finals.
