Winter Olympics 2022: Germany's Francesco Friedrich says bobsled track is worn out

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Olympic bobsled champion Francesco Friedrich may skip Friday’s final day of training for this weekend’s four-man event, for two reasons.

One, he may need a break.

Two, he thinks the ice needs a break as well.

Friedrich complained about the quality of the ice at the Yanqing Sliding Center after completing another day of four-man training Thursday, doing so after he posted one of the slowest times in the field — placing 25th out of 28 sleds in his final run, a massive dip from his usual spot near or at the top of the standings in most training and racing sessions.

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Francesco Friedrich of Germany and his team drive their 4-man bobsled during a training heat at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022, in the Yanqing district of Beijing. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)

"The track is totally worn out," Friedrich told German reporters.

The three-time Olympic champion — a winner of two- and four-man golds at Pyeongchang in 2018, plus a two-man gold here in Beijing — is still the overwhelming favorite to win the four-man event that starts Saturday and ends Sunday, the final day of the Games.

But he sounded an alarm that isn’t uncommon toward the end of an Olympics, as ice tends to get beaten up. Not even counting unofficial training sessions that started a few days before the opening ceremony on Feb. 4, the world’s best bobsledders, skeleton athletes and luge athletes have made more than 2,400 trips down the Yanqing track in the last two weeks.

That's a lot. And four-man sleds are the biggest, heaviest and more damaging to the ice than any other. Four-man is traditionally the final sliding event of an Olympics,