| Date | 11 – 12 February 1972 | |
|---|---|---|
| Status | Olympic | |
| Location | Mount Teine Bobsleigh Course, Mount Teine | |
| Participants | 72 from 11 countries | |
| Format | Four runs, total time determined placement. | |
| Details | Curves: 14 Length: 1563 m Start Altitude: 495 m Vertical Drop: 70 m | |
Crews from West Germany, Italy and Switzerland had tasted world championship glory since the Grenoble Games with Wolfgang Zimmerer of West Germany having been the most successful pilot with medals from all three editions since 1969. With the reigning world championship crew not competing the burden of Swiss expectation fell on the Switzerland I crew of Jean Wicki who had already won the bronze medal in the two man event.
Wicki put together a series of four excellent runs and pulled out a gap of three-quarters of a second over his rivals and reclaimed the Olympic four man title for Switzerland after a gap of sixteen years. The more exciting battle was for the other places on the podium. The tussle between Italy I and the two West Germany crews ended with the Italians winning the silver medals but only by a tenth of a second.
| Pos | Number | Competitors | NOC | Time | Run #1 | Run #2 | Run #3 | Run #4 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 | Switzerland 1 |  SUI | 4:43.07 | 1:10.71 (1) | 1:11.44 (2) | 1:10.21 (3) | 1:10.71 (3) | Gold | |||||
| Jean Wicki • Hans Leutenegger • Werner Camichel • Edy Hubacher | ||||||||||||||
| 2 | 10 | Italy 1 |  ITA | 4:43.83 | 1:11.39 (5) | 1:11.33 (1) | 1:10.19 (2) | 1:10.92 (4) | Silver | |||||
| Nevio De Zordo • Adriano Frassinelli • Corrado Dal Fabbro • Gianni Bonichon | ||||||||||||||
| 3 | 18 | West Germany 1 |  FRG | 4:43.92 | 1:11.18 (3) | 1:11.75 (3) | 1:10.30 (4) | 1:10.69 (2) | Bronze | |||||
| Wolfgang Zimmerer • Stefan Gaisreiter • Walter Steinbauer • Peter Utzschneider | ||||||||||||||
| 4 | 12 | Switzerland 2 | SUI | 4:44.56 | 1:12.36 (14) | 1:11.89 (5) | 1:10.09 (1) | 1:10.22 (1) | ||||||
| Hans Candrian • Erwin Juon • Gaudenz Beeli • Heinz Schenker | ||||||||||||||
| 5 | 2 | West Germany 2 | FRG | 4:45.09 | 1:10.83 (2) | 1:11.88 (4) | 1:11.06 (6) | 1:11.32 (=7) | ||||||
| Horst Floth • Donat Ertel • Walter Gilik • Pepi Bader | ||||||||||||||
| 6 | 6 | Austria 1 |  AUT | 4:45.77 | 1:11.20 (4) | 1:12.46 (=10) | 1:11.11 (=8) | 1:11.00 (5) | ||||||
| Herbert Gruber • Utz Chwalla • Josef Eder • Josef Oberhauser | ||||||||||||||
| 7 | 3 | Austria 2 | AUT | 4:46.66 | 1:11.58 (8) | 1:12.46 (=10) | 1:11.16 (10) | 1:11.46 (10) | ||||||
| Werner Delle Karth • Werner Moser • Walter Delle Karth • Fritz Sperling | ||||||||||||||
| 8 | 9 | Italy 2 | ITA | 4:46.73 | 1:11.89 (10) | 1:12.49 (=12) | 1:11.11 (=8) | 1:11.24 (6) | ||||||
| Gianfranco Gaspari • Roberto Zandonella • Mario Armano • Luciano De Paolis | ||||||||||||||
| 9 | 1 | France |  FRA | 4:46.75 | 1:11.79 (9) | 1:12.18 (6) | 1:11.27 (11) | 1:11.51 (11) | ||||||
| Patrick Parisot • Yves Bonsang • Alain Roy • Gilles Morda | ||||||||||||||
| 10 | 19 | Romania |  ROU | 4:47.12 | 1:12.07 (11) | 1:12.65 (14) | 1:11.08 (7) | 1:11.32 (=7) | ||||||
| Ion Panțuru • Ion Zangor • Dumitru Pascu • Dumitru Focșeneanu | ||||||||||||||
| 11 | 15 | Sweden |  SWE | 4:47.40 | 1:12.14 (12) | 1:12.42 (8) | 1:11.43 (13) | 1:11.41 (9) | ||||||
| Carl-Erik Eriksson • Tom Mentzer • Thomas Gustafsson • Jan Johansson | ||||||||||||||
| 12 | 4 | Japan 1 |  JPN | 4:47.92 | 1:11.51 (=6) | 1:12.99 (=15) | 1:11.42 (12) | 1:12.00 (=13) | ||||||
| Susumu Esashika • Kazumi Abe • Rikio Sato • Yoshiyuki Ichihashi | ||||||||||||||
| 13 | 13 | Canada |  CAN | 4:48.06 | 1:12.61 (15) | 1:12.43 (9) | 1:10.76 (5) | 1:12.26 (16) | ||||||
| Hans Gehrig • David Richardson • Peter Blakeley • Andrew Faulds | ||||||||||||||
| 14 | 14 | United States 2 |  USA | 4:48.43 | 1:12.31 (13) | 1:12.34 (7) | 1:11.80 (14) | 1:11.98 (12) | ||||||
| Bob Said • James Copley • Ken Morris • Phil Duprey | ||||||||||||||
| 15 | 16 | Great Britain 2 |  GBR | 4:50.46 | 1:13.00 (17) | 1:12.49 (=12) | 1:12.72 (16) | 1:12.25 (15) | ||||||
| John Hammond • Jackie Price • Alan Jones • Peter Clifford | ||||||||||||||
| 16 | 7 | Great Britain 1 | GBR | 4:51.03 | 1:12.83 (16) | 1:13.65 (17) | 1:12.55 (15) | 1:12.00 (=13) | ||||||
| Patrick Evelyn • Mike Freeman • Gomer Lloyd • Bill Sweet | ||||||||||||||
| 8 | United States 1 | USA | – | – ( | – | – | – | 1 | ||||||
| Jim Hickey, Jr. • Jim Bridges • Howard Siler, Jr. • Tom Becker | ||||||||||||||
| 11 | Japan 2 | JPN | – | 1:11.51 (=6) | 1:12.99 (=15) | – ( | – | |||||||
| Toshihisa Nagata • Hiroshi Inaba • Koichi Sugawara • Akihiko Suzuki | ||||||||||||||
| 17 | Canada 1 | CAN | – | – ( | – | – | – | |||||||
| Bob Storey • Michael Hartley • Colin Nelson • Vance White | ||||||||||||||
