LAKE PLACID, N.Y. (AP) — Francesco Friedrich won every championship he could in bobsledding this season.
The German great is now a world champion for the 16th time, capping off his seventh four-man world title on Saturday at Mount Van Hoevenberg on the final day of the international bobsled season.
This is the sixth time — all in the last seven seasons — that Friedrich has swept the World Cup season titles in both two- and four-man, plus swept those races at either the Olympics or the world championships that season.
Friedrich finished three runs — one of the scheduled four heats was canceled on Friday because of worsening track conditions as the air temperature rose — over two days in 2 minutes, 44.52 seconds.
Johannes Lochner of Germany was second in 2:44.80 and Brad Hall of Britain was third in 2:45.00. The top American sled was driven by Frank Del Duca, who finished fourth in 2:45.64, while Kris Horn of the U.S. drove to a seventh-place finish.
Calgary's Taylor Austin piloted the Canadian sled to an eighth-place finish.
“The biggest thing was just having friends and family here,” Del Duca said after wrapping up worlds on his home track in Lake Placid. “Coming up the outrun and high-fiving them and hearing them cheer was really special. It was a great time.”
Friedrich capped another year when he was the best bobsledder in the world, winning medals in all 17 of his major international races (15 World Cups, plus the two-man and four-man events in Lake Placid). He won 10 golds, also best in the world this year, with six silvers and one bronze.
Lochner finished his year with 16 medals — six gold, seven silver and three bronze.
Women's bobsled
Laura Nolte is the world champion for the first time, and she led Germany’s second consecutive sweep of the world championship medals in two-woman bobsled.
Nolte and Deborah Levi finished four runs over two days in 3:46.00. Kim Kalicki and Leonie Fiebig were second in 3:46.52 and Lisa Buckwitz and Kira Lipperheide were third in 3:47.46.
The U.S. took the next three spots. Kaillie Humphries — who had a huge fourth run — teamed with Emily Renna to finish fourth, just 0.06 seconds out of the medals. World monobob champion Kaysha Love and Jazmine Jones were fifth, followed by Elana Meyers Taylor and Lolo Jones in sixth.
Melissa Lotholz of Barrhead, Alta., piloted Canada to an eighth-place finish.
It was Germany’s 11th time sweeping the medals in a world championship or Olympic bobsled race. It also happened last week in the two-man competition.
Medal standings
Germany claimed 73 of the 103 medals awarded in World Cup and world championship bobsledding this season, winning 28 of 34 races around the world. No other nation had more than nine bobsled medals; Britain and the U.S. both finished the season with that many.
Nolte had 14 medals on the season, two more than Buckwitz for the top spot in the world in 2024-25. Kalicki had seven and Love — the top American in the overall medal standings — finished the season with six.
Up next
The international sliding season is over, though some nations are still planning some internal events while weather allows. The first major news of the sliding offseason could be the announcement on whether Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, will play host to the Olympic sliding events or if they will take place in Lake Placid next February.
Cortina is scheduled to hold a homologation, or track testing, event later this month. It is unclear if that will happen as planned.
___
AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports
The Associated Press
