GB Four-Man Bobsleigh Falls Short of Olympic Podium in Cortina
The British four-man bobsleigh team has concluded their Olympic campaign at the Cortina Sliding Centre with a seventh-place finish, a result that fell short of their podium aspirations. While considered outsiders against the formidable German bobsleigh juggernaut, the team, comprising pilot Brad Hall, Taylor Lawrence, Leon Greenwood, and Greg Cackett, finished just under half a second away from securing a medal.
This outcome marks a stark contrast to the team’s recent surge in form. Over the past couple of seasons, they’ve established themselves as a significant force on the international circuit. Notably, they achieved two four-man gold medals at the World Cup in Winterberg last January, a feat that hadn’t been accomplished by a non-German team at that venue since 2012. Further solidifying their prowess, they clinched a bronze medal at the 2025 World Championships and secured fourth place overall in the 2025-26 World Cup season. This strong track record had fuelled expectations of a close contest with the German contingent in Cortina.
However, the Olympic dream began to unravel during the competition. After a promising start that saw them in third position after the initial run, a disappointing second run saw them slide down the rankings. The time deficit accumulated proved too significant to overcome in the subsequent two heats on Sunday, ultimately proving insurmountable.
Pilot Brad Hall expressed his disappointment, stating, “It’s pretty brutal. We expected much better from ourselves. We’ve had a great four years up until this moment, winning World Championship medals, European champions and everything else. To finish seventh is quite heart-breaking. It’s not a reflection of our ability, it’s just the way things have turned out today. That is the way sport goes sometimes.” He also voiced a hope that their Olympic performances would inspire greater public interest in winter sports between Olympic cycles. “Obviously we’d like everyone to tune in a bit more in the years in between to see our successes. Hopefully some of the performances at these Olympic Games will mean that a lot more people tune into winter sports and see that success over the next few years,” Hall added.
The spotlight in the four-man event was firmly on Germany, with Johannes Lochner clinching his second gold medal of the Games. Lochner and his crew, including Thorsten Margis, Jorn Wenzel, and Georg Fleischhauer, triumphed by a margin of 0.57 seconds over their formidable teammate, two-time defending champion Francesco Friedrich. For Lochner, this gold adds to his impressive Olympic collection, having previously secured two silver medals behind Friedrich.
Friedrich’s latest medal cemented his status as the most decorated bobsleigh pilot in Olympic history, boasting a total of four gold and two silver medals.
Germany’s dominance, however, was not absolute. The bid for a clean sweep of the podium was thwarted on the final run. Adam Ammour, the third German pilot, was narrowly edged out of a bronze medal position by Michael Vogt of Switzerland, who finished a further half-second behind Friedrich. Vogt’s sled proved to be just four-hundredths of a second faster than Ammour’s, denying Germany a historic first-ever podium lockout in this event.
The British contingent leaves Milano-Cortina without any bobsleigh medals. In the two-man event, the pairing of Brad Hall and Leon Greenwood (who was a late replacement for Taylor Lawrence) finished in 12th place, rounding off a challenging week for the GB bobsleigh programme.
