Four/Five, Men1

Originally two days of racing were planned, with two heats contested on 16 and 17 February. But warm weather led to a postponement, and eventually only two runs were contested on the 18th. Both runs were won by one of the Americans crews. USA I was steered by Jennison Heaton, the winner of the skeleton race, while the second sled was piloted by 16-year-old Billy Fiske. Three of Fiske’s crewmen had been recruited through a newspaper advertisement, and Tucker, Mason and Parke had no prior bobsleigh experience. Fiske won the first heat, ahead of Belgium’s Ernest Casimir-Lambert, one of the pre-race favorites. Casimir-Lambert’s crew sported two Summer Olympians, fencing silver medalist Léon Tom and sprinter Max Houben, who would go on to pilot bobsleds himself and win a silver medal in 1948. But the Belgians made a major error in the second run and dropped to sixth.

Fiske’s final descent was also slower than his first, but Heaton’s fastest time of the day was not enough for a gold medal. Kilian’s bronze medal was Germany’s first Olympic podium since the First World War, having been excluded in 1920 and 1924. The two Argentine bobs were the surprise of the competition.