BMW knows speed and USA knows two-man bobsled gold medals in the Olympics, so it was a perfect match. Well, almost. BMW knows speed but the USA has not won a two-man bobsled gold medal at a Winter Olympics since 1936. We’ll do the math for you – that’s 78 years and the gap was even more excruciating for the United States Olympic Committee [USOC] when the country had won medals in four-man and women’s bobsled events during that time. Just no two-man bobsled – the signature event of the bobsled world [think 100 meter final for track in the warm weather Olympics].
With a budget of only $2.4 million to develop the entire USA men’s and women’s bobsled and skeleton teams for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, the USOC cut a deal with BMW of North America – they provide the expertise of its design teams and engineers and, oh yeah, some money would help too – and maybe that 78 year drought would end. So next month when the USA two-man BMW-designed bobsled takes the track, there is the expectation that the USA will be bringing back their first two-man bobsled gold medals [or at least silver medals encased in gold] from the Winter Olympics since the Great Depression when people were more concerned with eating and surviving than with bobsled medaling at the Winter Olympics.
The two-man bobsled event at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi is scheduled for February 16-17, 2014.