What to know about bobsled at the Winter Olympics: The Germans vs. everyone else

The biggest rivalry going into the bobsled competition at the Milan Cortina Olympics is pretty much not in dispute.

On one side, there is Germany. And on the other side, there is everybody else.

The sport made its Olympic debut in 1924 and Germany didn't win its first gold medals until 1952. But the country, including the days of both East Germany and West Germany, has dominated like no other, with 22 gold medals since 1952 and rest of the world combining for 21 golds in that span.

There are four types of bobsled races: two-man, four-man, two-woman and monobob, which has just one female pilot in the sled and nobody else. All sleds have one driver, and the person in the back of the sled is considered the brakeman; his or her role is exactly as it sounds, to pull the brakes once the sled has crossed the finish line. Races start with everyone running either alongside or behind the sled, down a ramp before they jump into the sled. For aerodynamic reasons, everyone’s head should stay down during a race (except the driver, of course). Speeds can reach 90 mph (145 kmh).

Germans tend to dominate sliding, and four-time Olympic gold medalist Francesco Friedrich is generally considered the best bobsledder of all time. He will face intense competition from German teammate Johannes Lochner on the men’s side, where American pilot Frank Del Duca will try to crash the medal party. For the women, U.S. star Kaysha Love is the reigning world monobob champion, while veterans Kaillie Humphries Armbruster (three gold medals) and Elana Meyers Taylor (five medals) are never to be counted out. Germany’s women are very strong as well.

Competition in bobsled is from Feb. 15-22, all at the Cortina Sliding Center on the remodeled Eugenio Monti track.

For USA Bobsled, the quintessential Olympic moment likely remains the four-man bobsled gold medal by Steven Holcomb in the famed “Night Train” sled at the 2010 Vancouver Games, when he and his team ended a 62-year drought for the Americans in the sport’s biggest race. There also is the unforgettable, made-for-the-movies tale of the Jamaican bobsled team at the 1988 Olympics in Calgary when they bucked overwhelming odds and competed in the two- and four-man events. Jamaica still has a bobsled team as well, and plenty of other smaller nations — even those that never see snow — have embraced the sport more and more since.

Friedrich will try to become the first pilot with more than four gold medals; he’s currently tied with another German great, Andre Lange, for the most in Olympic history. If a team crashes, it remains in the competition provided that the sled actually crosses the finish line. Unlike skaters, who have blades on their feet, bobsleds don’t have anything sharp on the bottom of the sleds. They glide on runners, which are steel tubes.

AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

FILE - Winner Kaysha Love of the United States celebrates after the women's monobob race at the Bobsleigh World Cup in Innsbruck, Austria, Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader, File)

FILE - First placed Kaillie Humphries of United States celebrates during award ceremony of the of the Women's Monobob World Cup race in Sigulda, Latvia, Saturday, Feb. 18, 2023. (AP Photo/Oksana Dzadan, FILE)

FILE - Germany's Francesco Friedrich talks during an interview with the Associated Press ahead of a three-day skeleton and bobsled World Cup stage and Olympic test event in Cortina D'Ampezzo, Italy, Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, FILE)

FILE - Second placed Johannes Lochner of Germany celebrates after the men's two-man bobsleigh World Cup race in Igls, near Innsbruck, Austria, Saturday, Nov. 20, 2021. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader, FILE)

AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — A look at some of the anniversaries this year at the Masters:

Winner: Ben Hogan

Score: 70-72-70-68—280

Margin: 2 shots

Prize: $3,000

Runner-up: Skee Riegel

Key to win: Hogan started the final round one shot behind Riegel and Sam Snead and shot 68 without making a bogey.

Noteworthy: Hogan won his second major after his near-fatal car accident. The following year, he wrote a letter to Augusta National co-founder Cliff Roberts suggesting a dinner for all the Masters champions.

AP story: “Icicle-nerved Ben Hogan added a sensational flourish to one of the great comeback sagas in sports Sunday when he won his first Masters golf championship with a near-record 280. The gristly little man from Texas subdued Augusta National’s treacherous acres with a grim and meticulous last round 68, four under par golf that burned off all opposition. The 38-year-old National Open champion, winner of that crown twice and the PGA as many times, thus completed his slam of major American pro championships.”

Winner: Raymond Floyd

Score: 65-66-70-70—271

Margin: 8 shots

Prize: $40,000

Runner-up: Ben Crenshaw

Key to the win: Floyd made birdie or eagle on every par 5 through 54 holes in building an eight-shot lead. He tied the 72-hole record held by Jack Nicklaus.

Noteworthy: Floyd joined Craig Wood, Arnold Palmer and Nicklaus as the only wire-to-wire winners of the Masters. There would not be another one until Jordan Spieth in 2015.

AP story: “Ray Floyd — never pressured, never pushed — took a casual little stroll through the Georgia piney woods this sunny Sunday, paused to strike the golf ball 70 times and ambled home with perhaps the easiest Masters victory of all time. Floyd, a 33-year-old one-time playboy turned solid, sober family man, won this 40th renewal of golf’s annual spring rite with a 271 total, 17 under par and matching the tournament record for 72 holes set by Jack Nicklaus in 1965. Only handsome young Ben Crenshaw — who gave a flock of giggling girls a little thrill when he hiked his britches above his knees to wade into the pond on the 16th hole — could generate any challenge at all and that was much too little, much too late.”

Winner: Tiger Woods

Score: 70-66-68-68—272

Margin: 2 shots

Prize: $1,008,000.

Runner-up: David Duval

Key to the win: Woods was locked in a thriller with his two chief rivals, Duval and Phil Mickelson. They each made bogey on the par-3 16th and never caught up to Woods, who didn’t drop a shot over the last six holes. His second Masters title allowed him to hold all four majors at the same time.

Noteworthy: Woods swept the four majors with a combined score of 65-under par and had at least a share of the lead after 13 of the 16 rounds.

AP story: “Slam or not, Tiger Woods was simply grand. With a heart-stopper at Augusta National punctuated with a birdie at the end, Woods claimed the greatest feat in modern golf Sunday by winning the Masters, giving him a clean sweep of the four professional majors in a span of 294 days. Woods closed with a 68, steady down the haunting back nine of Augusta National as David Duval and Phil Mickelson failed to harness the magic that has carried Woods to five of the last six majors. The only thing left to debate is what to call this remarkable feat. Purists argue that a Grand Slam is accomplished in a calendar year. Woods, emotionally drained after a relentless battle from start to finish, stayed out of the argument. “I won four,” he said.”

Winner: Phil Mickelson

Score: 70-72-70-69—281

Margin: 2 shots

Prize: $1,260,000

Runner-up: Tim Clark

Key to the win: Mickelson had a one-shot lead and didn’t make a bogey until the final hole. Fred Couples had a 4-foot birdie putt on the 14th to pull within one shot and three-putted.

Noteworthy: After going more than a decade before winning a major, Mickelson won three of the last nine.

AP story: “Phil Mickelson is a Masters champion again, and now he’s making it look easy. Once known as a lovable loser who needed a dozen years to figure out how to win golf’s biggest events, Mickelson captured his second straight major Sunday at Augusta National, and this one was hardly a nail-biter. He closed with a 3-under 69 for a two-shot victory over Tim Clark, and his second green jacket in three years. There were no thrills for Phil, rather calculated shots that forced Fred Couples, Tiger Woods and Vijay Singh to try to catch him. Instead, they stumbled along with three-putts and a litany of other mistakes that allowed Mickelson to stroll up the 18th fairway already knowing how this major would end.”

Winner: Danny Willett

Score:70-74-72-67—283

Margin: 3 shots

Prize: $1,800,000

Runner-up: Jordan Spieth and Lee Westwood

Key to the win: Willett was five shots behind on the back nine when Spieth made bogeys at Nos. 10 and 11 and twice hit into Rae’s Creek to make a quadruple-bogey 7 on the par-3 12th. Willett shot 33 on the back with birdies on the 13th, 14th and 16th holes.

Noteworthy: Willett became the first Englishman to win the Masters since Nick Faldo in 1996. Willett played the final round with Westwood, who also would play the final round with the U.S. Open champion (Dustin Johnson) two months later.

AP story: “Jordan Spieth couldn’t bear to watch, turning his head before another shot splashed into Rae’s Creek. Moments later, Danny Willett looked up at the large leaderboard at the 15th green and couldn’t believe what he saw. This Masters turned into a shocker Sunday, right down to the green jacket ceremony. Spieth was in Butler Cabin, just like everyone expected when he took a five-shot lead to the back nine at Augusta National. Only he was there to present it to Willett, who seized on Spieth’s collapse with a magnificent round that made him a Masters champion.”

Winner: Hideki Matsuyama

Score: 69-71-65-73—278

Margin: 1 shot

Prize: $2,070,000

Runner-up: Will Zalatoris

Key to the win: Matsuyama might have won this Saturday with a bogey-free 65 to build a four-shot lead. He led by as many as six shots but effectively sealed it when Xander Schauffele hit into the water on the 16th and made triple bogey. Matsuyama bogeyed three of the last four holes.

Noteworthy: The victory came 10 years after Matsuyama made his debut at Augusta National as the Asia-Pacific Amateur champion. Matsuyama was the first Masters champion since Trevor Immelman in 2008 to be over par in the last round.

AP story: "Hideki Matsuyama delivered golf-mad Japan the grandest and greenest prize of all. Ten years after Matsuyama made a sterling debut as the best amateur at Augusta National, he claimed the ultimate trophy Sunday with a victory in the Masters to become the first Japanese winner of the green jacket. Matsuyama closed with a 1-over 73 and a one-shot victory that was only close at the end, and never seriously in doubt after Xander Schauffele’s late charge ended with a triple bogey on the par-3 16th. Moments before Dustin Johnson helped him into the green jacket, Matsuyama needed no interpreter in Butler Cabin when he said in English, 'I’m really happy.'”

AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

FILE - Hideki Matsuyama, of Japan, holds the winner's trophy after winning the Masters golf tournament Sunday, April 11, 2021, in Augusta, Ga. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File)

FILE - Phil Mickelson tees off on the 13th hole during the first round of the U.S. Open golf tournament at Oakmont Country Club, June 12, 2025, in Oakmont, Pa. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

FILE - Tiger Woods reacts to his birdie putt on the 18th hole after winning the 2001 Masters at the Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Ga., Sunday, April 8, 2001. (AP Photo/Doug Mills, File)

FILE - In this April 12, 1976 file photo, Jack Nicklaus, right, assists Raymond Floyd in putting on his green jacket after Floyd won the Masters Golf Championship at Augusta, Ga. (AP Photo/file)

FILE - Ben Hogan, third from left, of Fort Worth, Texas, receives his plaque for winning the Masters golf tournament from Bobby Jones, left, in Augusta, Ga. on April 8, 1951. Others are: Skee Riegel, runner up; Cliff Roberts, tournament chairman; and Charles Coe, low amateur. (AP Photo/Horace Cort, File)