NOW THAT’S QUITE A CROWDED PODIUM
Canada’s Justin Kripps, Alex Kopacz tie for gold with rivals in two-man bobsled
Justin Kripps drove his sled across the finish line at the Olympic Sliding Centre, and all he saw was the No. 1 next to his name. First place, with no one left to go. Gold medal.
“I was just so excited and everyone started mobbing into the track,” Kripps said. “And I saw the Germans, and they were super excited, too, and I was like, ‘That’s nice, they’re really excited we won the gold.’”
In the chaos of the moment, it took awhile for the Canadians to figure out that the Germans — Francesco Friedrich and Thorsten Margis — also had No. 1 next to their name. Over four heats, the two sleds had a time of 3:16.86.
Because they don’t time bobsled races to the thousandth of a second — and why would they, really? — that meant both teams won gold. Latvia’s Oskars Melbardis and Janis Strenga won bronze in 3:16.91. Five one-hundredths of a second separating three sleds that had raced just over five-and-a-half kilometres. That close.
The win was the first for Canada in the event since Pierre Lueders tied for gold with an Italian sled in 1998. It was the first medal of any colour for Canada in the discipline since Lueders won silver in 2006.
The final run at Olympic Sliding Centre saw Kripps fall narrowly behind off the start, climb just back in front as his sled winded down the tricky track, and then cross the line in a dead heat.
Heading into the fourth of four runs, the sleds were grouped in an almost impossibly tight bunch. Kripps had overtaken first place with this third run, but there were four more sleds — three Germans and a Latvian — within 13 onehundredths of a second, the first time that is believed to have happened in an Olympic bobsled event with one run to go.
Kripps, 31, of Summerland, B.C., and Alex Kopacz, 28, of London, Ont., were mobbed by their Canadian teammates — and the Germans — at the finish line. Kripps said he knew he had driven a great race, but with the times so close there was no way to know if it was good enough in the moment. “And then I saw the 1, and basically blacked out. It was an eruption after that,” he said.
Hamilton’s Nick Poloniato finished seventh and teammate Chris Spring of Calgary was 10th.
As was the case last week at this same track when a pair of luge medals touched off communal bedlam among the Canadian team, the bobsled contingent was gleeful on Monday night. Jesse Lumsden, who had pushed for Kripps in many races over the past few years and was in Poloniato’s sled on Monday night, said he was honoured to have played a role in helping get his former driver to the top of a podium.
“It’s outrageous,” Lumsden of Burlington, Ont., said of the tie. “They earned that medal. Four good pushes, four consistent runs, and that’s how you win Olympic gold.”
The Kripps sled was in second place after the first two runs on Sunday night, one-tenth of a second behind Nico Walther of Germany and just nine one-hundredths of a second ahead of Johannes Lochner, also from Germany. Both those teams would finish out of the medals, a testament to how absurdly tight the times were at the top of the standings.
Before Monday night, Kripps had spent years in the slow build toward a potential podium spot at the Olympics. He was part of the four-man team piloted by Lueders at Vancouver 2010 — they finished out the medals — and moved into the pilot role himself a year later.
Success eventually followed with a World Cup win in 2014, and at the Sochi Olympics, Kripps piloted his two-man sled to sixth place.
But Kripps really started to make an impression on the bobsled circuit in recent years, including podium finishes at the world championships in 2017 and a stellar campaign this season, in which he only finished outside of the top three once in eight World Cup races — that time a fourth.
Last week, Kripps said he felt good on the Pyeongchang track.
“I like it, it’s fun to drive,” he said. “It’s a little tricky in some spots, but we are usually pretty fast, so it’s going to be all about consistency.”
The medal was the third of the Games for Canada at the Sliding Centre, following two in the luge events, the first such medals in this country’s Olympic history.
That is one medal of each colour for Canada so far at the track, in the right progression: bronze in women’s singles luge, silver in the luge relay and now gold in men’s two-man bobsled.
Kripps said sharing the podium was special. “You just became Olympic champions. We’ve been friends and rivals with these guys for years. We’re really happy for them, and they are for us, too.”
We’ve been friends and rivals with these guys for years. We’re really happy for them, and they are for us, too.