Friedrich and Humphries seeking bobsleigh immortality

LONDON, Jan 26 : Germany’s Francesco Friedrich has the opportunity to become the most successful male bobsledder in Olympic history, while Canadian-turned American Kaillie Humphries, already the owner of that title on the women’s side, can cement her star status on the newly built Olympics track at Cortina next month.

Friedrich, appearing in his fourth Winter Games, sits alongside three fellow Germans on four gold medals, but third overall on silver and bronze countback. He also has 18 World Championship golds and has taken seven of the last eight World Cups in four-man and six of the last 10 in two-man.

Friedrich, 35, plans to retire after the Olympics and focus on his career as a policeman.

His success has been part of a German men’s domination of the sport in recent years, which included a podium sweep in the two-man and a one-two in the four-man in Beijing.

As usual, Friedrich's main rivals for gold are likely to be his compatriots, probably in the form of Johannes Lochner.

He took double-silver in 2022, but arrives in Italy on the back of claiming the overall World Cup title after topping the two and four-man standings and with the advantage of having won both at the test event on the Cortina track in November.

He also plans to retire after the Games.

Another podium challenger should be German Adam Ammour who won the last two four-man World Cup events this month.

Hoping to break Germany's stranglehold will be Brad Hall, fourth in the World Cup standings and seeking what would be only a third bobsleigh medal for Britain in 60 years.

US AND GERMANY DOMINATE WOMEN'S BOBSLEIGH

Men’s bobsleigh was part of the inaugural Winter Olympics 100 years ago but women joined the party only in 2002, with monobob being introduced in 2022.

The