Four, Men
| Date | 21 – 22 February 1952 | |
|---|---|---|
| Status | Olympic | |
| Location | Bob sleighbanen, Frognerseter, Oslo | |
| Participants | 60 from 9 countries | |
| Format | Four runs, total time determined placement. | |
| Details | Curves: 13 Length: 1508 m Start Altitude: 429 m Vertical Drop: 124 m | |
On the form shown during 1949 and 1950 the Olympic title should have been decided between the USA, probably in the form of Stan Benham’s crew and one of the Swiss crews but the events of the 1951 World Championships changed that perception of events. Despite local opposition in Alpe d’Huez Germany was readmitted to that year’s championships and the heavyweight crew piloted by Andreas Ostler walked away with the gold medals.
During training runs on the Olympic course both German teams surprisingly struggled and looks set to miss the medal positions. The decision was made to withdrew one of their teams and enter a composite crew made of the two man champions Ostler and Nieberl, together with the two heaviest members of the other German foursome. This proved to be a winning combination and the crew posted the fastest time of all four runs to win the championships and Ostler became the first man to do the two man / four man double at an Olympic Games. A film “Schwere Jungs” based very loosely on this story was released in Germany in 2007. In third place was the team piloted by multiple world champion Fritz Feierabend who won his fifth Olympic medal but was never to become Olympic champion.
Fifteen teams contested the event after the withdrawal of the Belgian team following a practice accident.
| Pos | Competitors | NOC | Time | Run #1 | Run #2 | Run #3 | Run #4 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Unified Team of Germany |  GER | 5:07.84 | 1:16.86 (1) | 1:17.57 (1) | 1:16.55 (1) | 1:16.86 (1) | Gold | |||||
| Anderl Ostler • Fritz Kuhn • Lorenz Nieberl • Franz Kemser | |||||||||||||
| 2 | United States 1 |  USA | 5:10.48 | 1:17.44 (2) | 1:17.78 (2) | 1:16.72 (2) | 1:18.54 (4) | Silver | |||||
| Stan Benham • Pat Martin • Howard Crossett, Jr. • Jim Atkinson | |||||||||||||
| 3 | Switzerland 1 |  SUI | 5:11.70 | 1:18.67 (4) | 1:18.08 (3) | 1:17.40 (4) | 1:17.55 (2) | Bronze | |||||
| Fritz Feierabend • Albert Madörin • André Filippini • Stephan Waser | |||||||||||||
| 4 | Switzerland 2 | SUI | 5:13.98 | 1:17.75 (3) | 1:19.45 (5) | 1:17.88 (5) | 1:18.90 (6) | ||||||
| Felix Endrich • Fritz Stöckli • Franz Kapus • Werner Spring | |||||||||||||
| 5 | Austria 1 |  AUT | 5:14.74 | 1:19.34 (9) | 1:18.91 (4) | 1:18.27 (6) | 1:18.22 (3) | ||||||
| Karl Wagner • Franz Eckhardt • Hermann Palka • Paul Aste | |||||||||||||
| 6 | Sweden 1 |  SWE | 5:15.01 | 1:19.11 (7) | 1:19.90 (7) | 1:17.28 (3) | 1:18.72 (5) | ||||||
| Kjell Holmström • Felix Fernström • Nils Landgren • Jan de Man Lapidoth | |||||||||||||
| 7 | Sweden 2 | SWE | 5:17.86 | 1:18.84 (5) | 1:19.93 (=9) | 1:18.66 (7) | 1:20.43 (9) | ||||||
| Gunnar Åhs • Börje Ekedahl • Lennart Sandin • Gunnar Garpö | |||||||||||||
| 8 | Argentina |  ARG | 5:18.85 | 1:20.15 (13) | 1:19.81 (6) | 1:19.35 (10) | 1:19.54 (7) | ||||||
| Héctor Tomasi • Roberto José Bordeu • Carlos Alberto Tomasi • Carlos Sareisian | |||||||||||||
| 9 | United States 2 | USA | 5:19.68 | 1:19.13 (8) | 1:19.97 (11) | 1:19.49 (11) | 1:21.09 (11) | ||||||
| Jim Bickford, Jr. • Hubert Miller • Dick Severino • Joe Scott | |||||||||||||
| 10 | Italy 1 |  ITA | 5:19.92 | 1:20.02 (11) | 1:21.39 (15) | 1:18.86 (8) | 1:19.65 (8) | ||||||
| Dario Colombi • Dario Poggi • Sandro Rasini • Alberto Della Beffa | |||||||||||||
| 11 | France |  FRA | 5:20.74 | 1:18.90 (6) | 1:19.91 (8) | 1:19.18 (9) | 1:22.75 (14) | ||||||
| André Robin • Joseph Chatelus • Louis Saint Calbre • Henri Rivière | |||||||||||||
| 12 | Norway 1 |  NOR | 5:21.36 | 1:20.05 (12) | 1:19.93 (=9) | 1:19.98 (12) | 1:21.40 (12) | ||||||
| Arne Holst • Trygve Brudevold • James Hayden • Kåre Christiansen | |||||||||||||
| 13 | Norway 2 | NOR | 5:24.47 | 1:21.53 (15) | 1:21.18 (13) | 1:20.77 (14) | 1:20.99 (10) | ||||||
| Reidar Alveberg • Anders Hveem • Arne Røgden • Gunnar Thoresen | |||||||||||||
| 14 | Italy 2 | ITA | 5:25.98 | 1:21.23 (14) | 1:21.35 (14) | 1:21.64 (15) | 1:21.76 (13) | ||||||
| Uberto Gillarduzzi • Michele Alverà • Vittorio Folonari • Luigi Cavalieri | |||||||||||||
| Austria 2 | AUT | – | 1:19.51 (10) | 1:20.25 (12) | 1:20.44 (13) | – ( | |||||||
| Kurt Loserth • Wilfried Thurner • Franz Kneissl • Heinz Hoppichler | |||||||||||||