Bob dominator Francesco Friedrich doesn’t see the tricky turn 13 in the Yanqing Olympic ice track as the “mega problem”.
That’s what the double Olympic champion from Pyeongchang said after the first official training sessions in the two-man sled in China.
“Of course it takes time if you don’t solve it properly and drive out sensibly. But we only get one gang there. The place is not the executioner. The executioner is more like all twelve curves in front of it,” said the German flag bearer.
Vice world champion Johannes Lochner also described the passage in which world champion Julia Taubitz lost all her chances of winning a medal in a luge race as “not so bad”. You could lose about five hundredths in the exit of the curve, “no one can really get through it cleanly,” added the 31-year-old.
The men will contest the first two of their four runs in the small sled on Monday, with the medals being awarded on Tuesday. Friedrich is considered the big favourite: The 31-year-old Saxon can draw level with Andre Lange, the most successful bobsleigh pilot in history, in triumphs in twos and fours after Olympic gold medals.