Germany's Lochner goes into retirement with Olympic 4-man bobsled gold win over Friedrich

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CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — Johannes Lochner went out on top, and Germany capped another dazzling Olympic display with another dominant bobsled show at the Milan Cortina Games.

Lochner — who announced his retirement months ago — capped his career with his second gold medal of these Olympics, winning the four-man event over two-time defending Olympic champion Francesco Friedrich by 0.57 seconds on Sunday in the final sliding event of these Games.

“It’s just such a dream. … It's indescribable,” Lochner said. “A moment for eternity. A perfect finish, the most perfect finish ever.”

But it wasn't a German sweep: Switzerland got the bronze, with Michael Vogt overtaking Germany's Adam Ammour in the fourth and final run to secure that third-place spot. Ammour settled for fourth.

Lochner's four-run time was 3 minutes, 37.57 seconds. Friedrich — Germany's all-time leader in just about every category imaginable — finished in 3:38.14, Vogt in 3:38.64 and Ammour in 3:38.68.

“A year and a half ago, Hansi asked me to come in his sled and we made a plan,” said pusher Thorsten Margis, who won four Olympic golds with Friedrich and now has a fifth with Lochner. “It’s quite cool if such a plan works out, and it’s pretty amazing to beat the most successful bobsleigh pilot in the world.”

Lochner has made his future plans known. Friedrich isn't saying if he's retiring — yet.

“Normally I have to get one more gold," Friedrich said. "So, we will see.”

Kris Horn had the top U.S. sled, finishing 11th with Caleb Furnell, Hunter Powell and Carsten Vissering in his sled. Frank Del Duca was 12th for the U.S., with Boone Niederhofer, Bryan Sosoo and Josh Williamson in his sled.

“I’m trying to find the words to explain it,” Del Duca said. “We are medal contenders, so to not have a medal hurts. But to be able to walk away from the competition, knowing that we gave maximum effort and maximum preparation, and then be able to see our family in the stands and feel the love from them, feel the support from each other … as hard as it is to walk away empty-handed, we have very full hearts with the support that we have.”

The final bobsled medal tally from bobsled at these Olympics: Germany 8, U.S. 3, Switzerland 1, everyone else in the world 0.

And the total from all three sliding sports — adding skeleton and luge — was just as one-sided.

Those final numbers: Germany 19, Austria 5, Italy 4, U.S. 4, Britain 2, Switzerland 1 and Latvia 1. If Lochner, Friedrich and Ammour were their own nation, they would have tied for the top spot in the sliding medal standings. They combined to win five themselves.

“We are all putting down a show,” said two-woman Olympic champion Laura Nolte, who won two of Germany's nine bobsled medals in Cortina. “And it's fun.”

Lochner became the seventh pilot to sweep both men’s bobsled events in an Olympics, joining Anderl Ostler (1952), Eugenio Monti (1968), Meinhard Nehmer (1976), Wolfgang Hoppe (1984), Andre Lange (2006), and Friedrich (2018 and 2022).

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