Bobsledding history and information, olympic athletes, olympic games and more. Everything you could want to know about Bobsledding in the Olympics.

Three bobsleigh events were competed at the 2006 Winter Olympics, at the Cesana Pariol venue. The competition took place between February 18 and February 25, 2006. Approximately 7,130 spectators were expected by the organizing committee.

The events used a newly built track measuring 1435 metres with 19 curves, a vertical change of 114 metres, and an approximate top speed of 130 kilometres per hour.

Olympic bobsleigh is governed by the International Bobsleigh and Tobogganing Federation.

Qualification

All entries must have been submitted to the organizing committee by 30 January 2006.

The qualification was based on the results of pilots, with other members of a bobsleigh crew being selected by their National Olympic Committees. In the two man event, the top 22 pilots from the World Cup 2005-2006 season, the top 4 from the European Challenge Cup, and the top 2 from the North American Challenge Cup all qualified, subject to limits on number of crews per NOC. The four man event qualification was identical except that the World Cup season qualifies only 20 pilots. The two woman event allowed the top 15 pilots from the World Cup 2005-2006 season. NOCs may not have selected other pilots than those who were within the qualifying limits, though if more than two pilots have qualified the selection was made by each individual NOC.

The host nation is guaranteed at least one crew in each event. In addition, all five of the Olympic continents must be represented, with at least one crew in a men's event and one crew in the two woman event. Each nation is limited to two bobs in each event.

Bobsleigh has a minimum age of 18 by the opening date of the Games for competitors.

Events

Competitions comprised four heats. Teams raced in the first and third heats in the order of the draw. The second heat was raced in order of ranking after the first heat, and the fourth heat is raced in order of the ranking after the first three heats. Total time for the four heats determined the final rank.

Two-man

The two man event was held on 18 February 2006 (runs 1 and 2) and 19 February 2006 (runs 3 and 4).

Medal	Athlete	Time
Gold	André Lange / Kevin Kuske (GER)	3:43.38
Silver	Pierre Lueders / Lascelles Brown (CAN)	3:43.59
Bronze	Martin Annen / Beat Hefti (SUI)	3:43.73

When qualifications were concluded on 15 January 2006, the following pilots were in positions that will qualify them for the two-man event

• Australia
  • Jeremy Rollestone
• Austria
  • Wolfgang Stampfer
  • Jürgen Loacker
• Canada
  • Pierre Lueders
  • Serge Despres
• Czech Republic
  • Ivo Danilevic
• France
  • Bruno Mingeon
• Great Britain
  • Lee Johnston
• Germany
  • Matthias Höpfner
  • André Lange
• Hungary
  • Marton Gyulai
• Italy
  • Fabrizio Tosini
  • Simone Bertazzo
• Latvia
  • Janis Minins
  • Gatis Guts
• Netherlands
  • Arend Glas
• New Zealand
  • Alan Henderson
• Romania
  • Nicolae Istrate
  • Mihai Iliescu
• Russia
  • Alexandre Zoubkov
  • Evgeni Popov
• Slovakia
  • Milan Jagnesak
• Switzerland
  • Martin Annen
  • Ivo Rüegg
• United States
  • Two from the following three:
  • Todd Hays
  • Steven Holcomb
  • Mike Kohn

Pos	Pilot	Brakeman	Nation	Run 1	Run 2	Run 3	Run 4	Total
1	Andre Lange	Kevin Kuske	Germany	55.28	55.73	56.01	56.36	3:43.38
2	Pierre Lueders	Lascelles Brown	Canada	55.57	55.50	56.11	56.41	3:43.59
3	Martin Annen	Beat Hefti	Switzerland	55.54	55.67	56.18	56.34	3:43.73
4	>Alexandre Zoubkov	Alexey Voevoda	Russia	55.54	55.85	56.12	56.49	3:44.00
5	Matthias Höpfner	Marc Kuehne	Germany	55.56	55.82	56.24	56.63	3:44.25
6	Janis Minins	Daumants Dreiskens	Latvia	55.94	55.84	56.16	56.69	3:44.63
7	Todd Hays	Pavle Jovanovic	United States	55.81	55.72	56.31	56.88	3:44.72
8	Ivo Rüegg	Cedric Grand	Switzerland	55.85	55.74	56.37	56.90	3:44.86

Four-man

The four man event was held on 24 February 2006 (runs 1 and 2) and 25 February 2006 (runs 3 and 4).

Medal	Athletes	Time
Gold	André Lange / Rene Hoppe / Kevin Kuske / Martin Putze (GER)	3:40.42
Silver	Alexandre Zoubkov / Philippe Egorov / Alexei Seliverstov / Alexey Voevoda (RUS)	3:40.55
Bronze	Martin Annen / Thomas Lamparter / Beat Hefti / Cedric Grand (SUI)	3:40.83

When qualifications were concluded on 15 January 2006, the following pilots were in positions that will qualify them for the four-man event.

• Austria
  • Wolfgang Stampfer
• Brazil
  • Ricardo Raschini
• Canada
  • Pierre Lueders
• Croatia
  • Ivan Sola
• France
  • Bruno Mingeon
• Great Britain
  • Lee Johnston
• Germany
  • André Lange
  • René Spies
• Hungary
  • Marton Gyulai
• Italy
  • Simone Bertazzo
  • Fabrizio Tosini
• Latvia
  • Janis Minins
  • Mihails Arhipovs
• Netherlands
  • Arend Glas
• > New Zealand
  • Alan Henderson
• Poland
  • Dawid Kupczyk
• Romania
  • Nicolae Istrate
• Russia
  • Alexandre Zoubkov
  • Evgeni Popov
• Slovakia
  • Milan Jagnesak
• Switzerland
  • Two from the following three:
  • Martin Annen
  • Ivo Rüegg
  • Martin Galliker
• United States
  • Two from the following three:
  • Todd Hays
  • Steven Holcomb
  • Mike Kohn

Pos	Pilot	Pushers	Brakeman	Nation	Run 1	Run 2	Run 3	Run 4	Total
1	Andre Lange	Rene Hoppe & Kevin Kuske	Martin Putze	Germany	55.20	55.30	54.80	55.12	3:40.42
2	Alexandre Zoubkov	Philippe Egorov & Alexei Seliverstov	Alexey Voevoda	Russia	55.22	55.45	54.87	55.01	3:40.55
3	Martin Annen	Thomas Lamparter & Beat Hefti	Cedric Grand	Switzerland	55.26	55.37	55.00	55.20	3:40.83
4	Pierre Lueders	Ken Kotyk & Morgan Alexander	Lascelles Brown	Canada	55.34	55.43	54.95	55.20	3:40.92
5	René Spies	Christoph Heyder & Enrico Kuehn	Alexander Metzger	Germany	55.47	55.48	54.91	55.18	3:41.04
6	Steven Holcomb	Curtis Tomasevicz & Bill Schuffenhauer	Lorenzo Smith III	United States	55.46	55.50	55.14	55.26	3:41.36
7	Todd Hays	Pavle Jovanovic & Steve Mesler	Brock Kreitzburg	United States	55.43	55.56	55.04	55.41	3:41.44
8	Ivo Rüegg	Andi Gees & Roman Handschin	Christian Aebli	Switzerland	55.65	55.63	55.22	55.30	3:41.80

In addition, one Japanese pilot has right to entry as a representative for the continent of Asia. This could be either Suguru Kiyokawa (2-man) or Hiroshi Suzuki (4-man).

Two-woman

The two woman event was held on 20 February 2006 (runs 1 and 2) and 21 February 2006 (runs 3 and 4).

Medal	Athlete	Time
Gold	Sandra Kiriasis & Anja Schneiderheinze (GER)	3:49.98
Silver	Shauna Rohbock & Valerie Fleming (USA)	3:50.69
Bronze	Gerda Weissensteiner & Jennifer Isacco (ITA)	3:51.01

When qualifications were concluded on 15 January 2006, the following pilots were in positions that will qualify them for this event. Those that actually competed are in italics.

• Canada
  • Two from the following three:
  • Helen Upperton
  • Suzanne Gavine-Hlady
  • Lesa Mayes-Stringer
• Great Britain
  • >Nicole Minichiello
• Germany
  • Sandra Kiriasis
  • Susi Erdmann
  • Ireland
    • Aoife Hoey
    • Siobhán Hoey
  • Italy
    • Gerda Weissensteiner
  • Japan
    • Manami Hino
  • Netherlands
    • Ilse Broeders
    • Eline Jurg
  • Russia
    • Victoria Tokovaia
  • Switzerland
    • Sabrina Hafner
    • Maya Bamert
  • United States
    • Two from the following three:
    • Shauna Rohbock
    • Jean Prahm
    • Jill Bakken

  Medal table

  Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
  1	Germany	3	0	0	3
  2	Canada	0	1	0	1
  	Russia	0	1	0	1
  	United States	0	1	0	1
  5	Switzerland	0	0	2	2
  6	Italy	0	0	1	1

  
  

  ---