Germany's Johannes Lochner storms to a big early lead in Olympic four-man bobsled

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CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — No surprise: Germany's Johannes Lochner is off to a big early lead in the four-man bobsled race at the Milan Cortina Games.

And he's well on his way to ending his career with double Olympic gold.

Lochner and his team — Thorsten Margis, Jorn Wenzel and Georg Fleischhauer — finished their first run of the four-heat event Saturday morning in 53.91 seconds. That was 0.39 seconds faster than the time posted by four-time Olympic champion and fellow German Francesco Friedrich in the first heat.

Brad Hall of Britain is third after one run, 0.48 seconds off the pace. The second heat is later Saturday and the medal-deciding runs are Sunday — the final day of the Games.

For the U.S., Kris Horn — who couldn't compete in two-man at these Olympics because he didn't finish enough races in the World Cup season — finally got his Games underway and is tied for eighth after one run, just 0.21 seconds back of the bronze-medal spot.

Horn is sliding with Caleb Furnell, Hunter Powell and Carsten Vissering.

Frank Del Duca, an opening ceremony flag-bearer for the U.S. who started 27th in the 27-sled field — meaning he got some seriously chewed-up ice to deal with in his opening run — is 14th for the Americans. Del Duca has Boone Niederhofer, Bryan Sosoo and Josh Williamson in his sled.

Jamaica, always a fan favorite at the Olympics and these games are no exception, is 23rd after one heat. Only the top 20 sleds after three heats qualify for the final run on Sunday.

The second heat was delayed for about 20 minutes after Austrian pilot Jakob Mandlbauer lost control of his sled and crashed toward the bottom portion of the track. Mandlbauer was taken off the track on a stretcher and brought by ambulance to a nearby hospital for evaluation.

There was no immediate word on the severity of his injuries.

Lochner has taken nine competitive runs at the Cortina track since it opened last fall and finished first in each of them — sweeping the two- and four-man events at the World Cup opener in November, then winning all four heats of the Olympic two-man race and now starting with a big lead in four-man.

The margin of 0.39 seconds was the biggest after one run of the Olympic four-man race since 1952 and keeps Lochner — who is retiring after these games — in position to become just the second pilot to ever sweep all eight heats in men's Olympic bobsled competition.

Anderl Ostler pulled off that feat 74 years ago. Wolfgang Hoppe nearly did it in 1984, winning seven of eight heats and finishing 0.01 seconds back in the other.

Lochner is also trying to become the seventh pilot to sweep both men's bobsled events in an Olympics, joining Ostler (1952), Italy's Eugenio Monti (1968), then-East Germany's Meinhard Nehmer (1976), Hoppe (1984), Germany's Andre Lange (2006), and Friedrich (2018 and 2022).

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