In a tie for seventh place with Austrian pilot Wolfgang Stampfer after the first run, Holcomb and his four-man team of Jesse Beckom III (Chicago, Ill./Winston-Salem, N.C.), Alex Sprague (Indianapolis, Ind.) and Brock Kreitzburg (Akron, Ohio) used a second run of 47.25 seconds to finish with sole possession of sixth place. With an initial slide of 47.27, Holcomb earned a combined time of 1:34.52.

“It takes three things to win a bobsled race: you have to have a good push, a good drive and good equipment,” Holcomb said after the race. “I think two of the three things were there today. We had a good push from Brock, Jesse and Alex, and the equipment is running real fast. All three of the U.S. sleds were going pretty quickly.”

“But my driving just wasn’t there,” he stated. “I made some mistakes in the wrong spots and it cost us some time. Being in the top six is not too bad. I’m not upset by any means; I’m pretty happy to be here.”

Mike Kohn (Chantilly, Va.) drove his team of Jamie Moriarty (Winnetka, Ill.), TJ Burns (Blue Bell, Pa.) and Theron Johnson (Wheaton, Md.) to a final time of 1:34.86 after runs of 47.46 and 47.40. In 11th place after the first heat, the team moved up one spot to finish 10th overall. Today’s race marks the second straight four-man competition in which Kohn has placed in the top 10.

Finishing just 0.01 seconds behind Kohn were his teammates Stephan Bosch (Park City, Utah), Ben Fogel (Nevada City, Calif.), Tim O’Mara (Salt Lake City, Utah) and Jeremy White (Durango, Colo.). After a first run of 47.50, they had the eighth-fastest run of the second heat with a time of 47.37. Racing on the track at which Bosch serves as the passenger ride manager, he and his team finished with a combined time of 1:34.87 to place 11th out of 19 sleds.

“Stephan drove well and this is kind of a home track for him,” said U.S. men’s bobsled team head coach Brian Shimer. “We have to work on his team’s sliding positions, make some changes and maybe switch some guys around a little bit to get some more speed.”

Russian Evgeni Popov claimed the first gold medal of the World Cup men’s bobsled season not won by Andre Lange of Germany. With a time of 1:33.89 (46.90, 46.99), Popov and his team of Dmitry Trunenkov, Roman Orechnikov and Dmitry Stepushkin earned a victory of two tenths of a second over Lange, Alexander Roediger, Kevin Kuske and Martin Putze. Lange and his crew finished second in 1:34.09 (47.05, 47.04).

Winning bronze was the Latvian sled of Janis Minins, Daumants Dreiskens, Ainars Podnieks and Reinis Rozitis with a time of 1:34.24 (47.04, 47.20), while the Swiss team of Ivo Rueegg, Tommy Herzog, Roman Handschin and Cedric Grand tied for fourth in 1:34.43 with Canadians Pierre Lueders, Ken Kotyk, David Bissett and Lascelles Brown. Rueegg had runs of 47.25 and 47.18, and Lueders had runs of 47.22 and 47.21.

The four-man bobsled race concluded a successful Park City World Cup for the U.S. bobsled and skeleton teams as they claimed four medals—three gold and one silver—and seven podium finishes. Driving Bo-Dyn sleds, the U.S. bobsled team has won four medals in six races this World Cup season.

The Park City World Cup men’s four-man bobsled race will be televised nationally on SPEED Channel on Sunday, Dec. 24, at 1 p.m. EST. For complete results of today’s race, visit the FIBT’s Web site at www.bobsleigh.com. The next World Cup men’s four-man bobsled competition is Dec. 17 in Lake Placid, N.Y. The Lake Placid World Cup opens on Dec. 15 with the men’s and women’s skeleton competition, while the two-man and women’s bobsled races are Dec. 16. The team event—featuring men’s and women’s skeleton, men’s two-man bobsled and women’s bobsled—will take place on Dec. 17.

RESULTS:

1. Popov, Trunenkov, Orechnikov and Stepushkin (Russia), 1:33.89 (46.90, 46.99); 2. Lange, Roediger, Kuske and Putze (Germany), 1:34.09 (47.05, 47.04); 3. Minins, Dreiskens, Podnieks and Rozitis (Latvia), 1:34.24 (47.04, 47.20); T4. Rueegg, Herzog, Handschin and Grand (Switzerland), 1:34.43 (47.25, 47.18); T4. Lueders, Kotyk, Bissett and Brown (Canada), 1:34.43 (47.22, 47.21); 6. Holcomb, Beckom III, Sprague and Kreitzburg (USA), 1:34.52 (47.27, 47.25); … 10. Kohn, Moriarty, Burns and Johnson (USA), 1:34.86 (47.46, 47.40); 11. Bosch, Fogel, O’Mara and White (USA), 1:34.87 (47.50, 47.37).