| Date | 3 – 4 February 1956 — 8:00 | |
|---|---|---|
| Status | Olympic | |
| Location | Pista del Bob, Ronco, Cortina d'Ampezzo | |
| Participants | 86 from 12 countries | |
| Format | Four runs, total time determined placement. | |
| Details | Curves: 16 Length: 1700 m Start Altitude: ? Vertical Drop: 153 m | |
The World Championship winning pilots from 1953 and 1954, Lloyd Johnson of the USA and Fritz Feierabend of Switzerland were not present but the reigning World Champion, Franz Kapus, appeared in Cortina with the same Switzerland I crew that he had steered to victory in 1955.
Whilst the two-man event had been completely dominated by Italy the four-man event was a very different competition. At the end of day one, during which temperatures had dipped to -16° C. (3° F.), four crews were left in contention for the medals. Switzerland I and II topped the leader board in that order with USA I and Italy’s II bob in close proximity. The decisive run was Switzerland I’s third as they blazed down the track over a second faster than their rivals and ensured that victory would be a formality. A disastrous final run from Switzerland II eliminated them from medal contention so it was left to Eugenio Monti’s Italian crew to sneak past American veteran Art Tyler for the second place on the podium.
For winning pilot Franz Kapus, at 46 years of age and in his third Olympics, it was a fitting climax to his career. Kapus remains the oldest man to pilot a bob to Olympic gold and the second oldest, after 48 year old J.J. O’Brien, of any Olympic bobsleigh champion.
| Pos | Number | Competitors | NOC | Time | Run #1 | Run #2 | Run #3 | Run #4 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Switzerland 1 |  SUI | 5:10.44 | 1:18.00 (4) | 1:17.19 (1) | 1:17.09 (1) | 1:18.16 (1) | Gold | |||||
| Franz Kapus • Gottfried Diener • Robert Alt • Heiri Angst | ||||||||||||||
| 2 | 9 | Italy 2 |  ITA | 5:12.10 | 1:17.69 (2) | 1:17.97 (4) | 1:18.13 (2) | 1:18.31 (2) | Silver | |||||
| Eugenio Monti • Ulrico Girardi • Renzo Alverà • Renato Mocellini | ||||||||||||||
| 3 | 4 | United States 1 |  USA | 5:12.39 | 1:17.75 (3) | 1:17.87 (3) | 1:18.25 (3) | 1:18.52 (3) | Bronze | |||||
| Art Tyler • Bill Dodge • Tom Butler • Jim Lamy | ||||||||||||||
| 4 | 14 | Switzerland 2 | SUI | 5:14.27 | 1:17.41 (1) | 1:17.85 (2) | 1:18.68 (5) | 1:20.33 (9) | ||||||
| Max Angst • Abi Gartmann • Harry Warburton • Rolf Gerber | ||||||||||||||
| 5 | 16 | Italy 1 | ITA | 5:14.66 | 1:18.10 (5) | 1:18.65 (5) | 1:18.50 (4) | 1:19.41 (4) | ||||||
| Dino De Martin • Giovanni De Martin • Giovanni Tabacchi • Carlo Da Pra | ||||||||||||||
| 6 | 15 | Unified Team of Germany 1 |  GER | 5:18.02 | 1:18.61 (6) | 1:19.04 (8) | 1:19.43 (7) | 1:20.94 (13) | ||||||
| Hans Rösch • Michael Pössinger • Lorenz Nieberl • Sylvester Wackerle, Sr. | ||||||||||||||
| 7 | 2 | Austria 2 |  AUT | 5:18.29 | 1:19.37 (10) | 1:19.12 (9) | 1:20.08 (9) | 1:19.72 (5) | ||||||
| Kurt Loserth • Wilfried Thurner • Karl Schwarzböck • Frank Dominik | ||||||||||||||
| 8 | 11 | Unified Team of Germany 2 | GER | 5:18.50 | 1:19.03 (9) | 1:18.84 (7) | 1:19.31 (6) | 1:21.32 (15) | ||||||
| Franz Schelle • Jakob Nirschl • Hans Henn • Edmund Koller | ||||||||||||||
| 9 | 21 | Spain |  ESP | 5:19.49 | 1:18.87 (7) | 1:19.27 (10) | 1:21.37 (17) | 1:19.98 (6) | ||||||
| Fon, Marqués de Portago • Vicente Sartorius • Gonzalo Taboada • Luis Muñoz | ||||||||||||||
| 10 | 5 | Austria 1 | AUT | 5:20.62 | 1:19.60 (11) | 1:20.74 (17) | 1:19.98 (8) | 1:20.30 (8) | ||||||
| Karl Wagner • Fritz Rursch • Adolf Tonn • Heinrich Isser | ||||||||||||||
| 11 | 3 | Norway |  NOR | 5:21.50 | 1:20.96 (17) | 1:20.08 (13) | 1:20.45 (11) | 1:20.01 (7) | ||||||
| Arne Røgden • Arnold Dyrdahl • Odd Solli • Trygve Brudevold | ||||||||||||||
| 12 | 13 | Great Britain 1 |  GBR | 5:22.12 | 1:21.39 (20) | 1:18.73 (6) | 1:20.42 (10) | 1:21.58 (16) | ||||||
| Keith Schellenberg • Rollo Brandt • Ralph Raffles • John Rainforth | ||||||||||||||
| 13 | 12 | Sweden 2 |  SWE | 5:23.18 | 1:20.58 (14) | 1:20.32 (15) | 1:21.15 (15) | 1:21.13 (14) | ||||||
| Kjell Holmström • Sven Erbs • Walter Aronson • Jan de Man Lapidoth | ||||||||||||||
| 14 | 10 | Romania 1 |  ROU | 5:23.19 | 1:21.53 (21) | 1:20.58 (16) | 1:20.64 (12) | 1:20.44 (10) | ||||||
| Heinrich Enea • Dumitru Frățilă 1 • Nicolae Moiceanu • Mărgărit Blăgescu • Dumitru Peteu 2 | ||||||||||||||
| 15 | 17 | Poland 1 |  POL | 5:23.49 | 1:19.95 (12) | 1:20.25 (14) | 1:21.10 (14) | 1:22.19 (20) | ||||||
| Stefan Ciapała • Jerzy Olesiak • Józef Szymański • Aleksander Habela | ||||||||||||||
| 16 | 20 | Sweden 1 | SWE | 5:23.54 | 1:18.95 (8) | 1:19.98 (12) | 1:22.75 (21) | 1:21.86 (18) | ||||||
| Olle Axelson • Ebbe Wallén • Sune Skagerling • Gunnar Åhs | ||||||||||||||
| 17 | 19 | Great Britain 2 | GBR | 5:23.73 | 1:20.72 (16) | 1:19.92 (11) | 1:22.51 (19) | 1:20.58 (12) | ||||||
| Stuart Parkinson • John Read • Rodney Mann 3 • Chris Williams | ||||||||||||||
| 18 | 6 | France |  FRA | 5:23.83 | 1:20.00 (13) | 1:21.25 (19) | 1:20.95 (13) | 1:21.63 (17) | ||||||
| André Robin • Pierre Bouvier • Jacques Panciroli • Lucien Grosso | ||||||||||||||
| 19 | 8 | United States 2 | USA | 5:25.16 | 1:20.97 (18) | 1:22.47 (20) | 1:21.22 (16) | 1:20.50 (11) | ||||||
| Jim Bickford, Jr. • Donald Jacques, Jr. • Larry McKillip • Hubert Miller | ||||||||||||||
| 20 | 18 | Romania 2 | ROU | 5:27.83 | 1:21.21 (19) | 1:21.22 (18) | 1:22.37 (18) | 1:23.03 (21) | ||||||
| Constantin Dragomir • Vasile Panait • Ion Staicu • Gheorghe Moldoveanu | ||||||||||||||
| 21 | 7 | Poland 2 | POL | 5:28.40 | 1:20.64 (15) | 1:23.13 (21) | 1:22.52 (20) | 1:22.11 (19) | 4 | |||||
| Aleksy Konieczny • Zygmunt Konieczny • Włodzimierz Źróbik • Zbigniew Skowroński • Jan Dombrowski | ||||||||||||||
