1964 Winter Olympics / Bobsleigh

Bobsleigh at the 1964 Winter Olympics
information
venue	innsbruck
Competition venue	Igls Olympic bobsleigh run
Nations	11
Athletes	81 (81 )
date	January 31 to February 7, 1964
decisions	2
← Cortina 1956 Grenoble 1968 →

With the IX. At the 1964 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck , two bobsleigh competitions took place. The venue was the Olympic bobsleigh run in the Igls district . The track was longer than today's: It was 1,506 m long, had a height difference of 138 m and had 13 curves. The average gradient was 9.2%, the largest 14.04%, the smallest 3.8%.

Balance sheet

Medal table

space	country				total
1	Canada	1	-	-	1
	United Kingdom	1	-	-	1
3	Italy	-	1	2	3
4th	Austria	-	1	-	1

Medalist

competitor	gold	silver	bronze
Two-man bobsleigh	Anthony Nash , Robin Dixon	Sergio Zardini , Romano Bonagura	Eugenio Monti , Sergio Siorpaes
Four-man bobsleigh	Victor Emery , Peter Kirby , Douglas Anakin , John Emery	Erwin Thaler , Adolf Koxeder , Josef Nairz , Reinhold Durnthaler	Eugenio Monti , Sergio Siorpaes , Benito Rigoni , Gildo Siorpaes

preview

Regarding the starting position in the bobsleigh, "Sport Zürich" stated in its issue of January 29, 1964 that eight years had passed since the last Olympic competitions, but that the balance of power at the top of the world's elite had not changed significantly. Thanks to their excellent bobsleigh makes, the Italians are still leading. With Eugenio Monti , Sergio Zardini and Rinaldo Ruatti , five one-two victories were achieved in the two-man bobsleigh, and the titles in the four-man bobsleigh went south “en masse”. Only the Swiss Hans Zoller (1957), the Germans Hans Rösch (1958) and Franz Schelle (1962) and the American Arthur Tyler (1959) were able to interrupt the Italian winning streak in the foursome. The training confirmed that the Italians were the first favorites for the upcoming Olympic competitions. Chances of winning a medal could be awarded to the Germans Erwin Thaler , Anthony Nash and Hans Zoller.

Results

(all results in min)

Two-man bobsleigh

space	country	athlete	1st run	2nd run	3rd run	4th run	total
1	GBR	Great Britain I: Anthony Nash , Robin Dixon	1: 05.53	1: 05.10	1: 05.39	1: 05.88	4: 21.90
2	ITA	Italy II: Sergio Zardini , Romano Bonagura	1: 05.63	1: 05.13	1: 05.21	1: 06.05	4: 22.02
3	ITA	Italy I: Eugenio Monti , Sergio Siorpaes	1: 05.94	1: 04.90	1: 05.41	1: 06.38	4: 22.63
4th	CAN	Canada II: Victor Emery , Peter Kirby	1: 05.15	1: 05.93	1: 05.96	1: 06.45	4: 23.49
5	United States	USA I: Lawrence McKillip , James Lamy	1: 06.17	1: 06.34	1: 05.84	1: 06.25	4: 24.60
6th	EUA	Germany I: Franz Wörmann , Hubert Braun	1: 06.87	1: 06.42	1: 05.17	1: 06.24	4: 24.70
7th	United States	USA II: Charles McDonald , Charles Pandolph	1: 05.97	1: 05.85	1: 06.16	1: 07.02	4: 25.00
8th	AUT	Austria I: Erwin Thaler , Josef Nairz	1: 05.72	1: 06.98	1: 06.48	1: 06.33	4: 25.51
9	AUT	Austria II: Franz Isser , Reinhold Durnthaler	1: 06.94	1: 06.71	1: 07.40	1: 07.04	4: 28.09
10	SUI	Switzerland I: Hans Zoller , Robert Zimmermann	1: 06.97	1: 06.20	1: 07.60	1: 07.38	4: 28.15
14th	EUA	Germany II: Hans Maurer , Rupert Grasegger	1: 06.72	1: 07.76	1: 06.92	1: 08.37	4: 29.77
17th	SUI	Switzerland II: Herbert Kiesel , Oskar Lory	1: 07.33	1: 07.70	1: 07.92	1: 08.25	4: 31.20

Runs 1 and 2: January 31, 1964 Runs
3 and 4: February 1, 1964

21 bobsleighs at the start, 19 of them in the ranking.

The surprise was delivered by Nash / Dixon, who prevailed against the favorite Italian bobsleighs, even though Monti / Siorpaes set a new track record in the second run (although the previous record was only a hundredth of a second worse due to Nash / Dixon only a few days earlier). The Canadians Emery / Kirby, who were not in the spotlight at the World Cup held here last year, had also improved enormously. Austria II escaped a bad accident in advance, but helmsman Heinrich Isser had to be brought to the clinic with shoulder and thigh injuries. Franz Isser had to switch to a replacement sled and the replacement helmsman Reinhold Durnthaler . Belgium I was unable to compete because brakeman Claude Englebert was injured in a car accident near the Olympic village. The track conditions were ideal on the first day. After two runs, the final ranking up to 4th place was already fixed.

Four-man bobsleigh

space	country	athlete	1st run	2nd run	3rd run	4th run	total
1	CAN	Canada I: Victor Emery , Peter Kirby , Douglas Anakin , John Emery	1: 02.99	1: 03.82	1: 03.64	1: 04.01	4: 14.46
2	AUT	Austria I: Erwin Thaler , Adolf Koxeder , Josef Nairz , Reinhold Durnthaler	1: 03.67	1: 03.94	1: 03.74	1: 04.13	4: 15.48
3	ITA	Italy II: Eugenio Monti , Sergio Siorpaes , Benito Rigoni , Gildo Siorpaes	1: 03.43	1: 04.07	1: 04.02	1: 04.80	4: 15.60
4th	ITA	Italy I: Sergio Zardini , Romano Bonagura , Sergio Mocellini , Ferruccio Della Torre	1: 03.95	1: 04.10	1: 03.59	1: 04.25	4: 15.89
5	EUA	Germany I: Franz Schelle , Otto Göbl , Ludwig Siebert , Josef Sterff	1: 04.21	1: 03.50	1: 04.15	1: 04.33	4: 16.19
6th	United States	USA I: William Hickey , Charles Randolph , Reginald Benham , William Dundon	1: 03.90	1: 04.11	1: 04.43	1: 04.79	4: 17.23
7th	AUT	Austria II: Paul Aste , Herbert Gruber , Andreas Arnold , Hans Stoll	1: 04.65	1: 04.40	1: 04.43	1: 04.25	4: 17.73
8th	SUI	Switzerland II: Herbert Kiesel , Bernhard Wild , Hansruedi Beugger , Oskar Lory	1: 04.33	1: 04.54	1: 04.65	1: 04.60	4: 18.12
9	EUA	Germany II: Franz Wörmann , Anton Wackerle , Rupert Grasegger , Hubert Braun	1: 04.47	1: 04.42	1: 05.25	1: 04.54	4: 18.68
10	SUI	Switzerland I: Hans Zoller , Hans Kleinpeter , Fritz Lüdi , Robert Zimmermann	1: 04.83	1: 04.52	1: 04.97	1: 04.73	4: 19.05

Date: February 5, 1964 (1st and 2nd run), February 6, 1964 (3rd run), February 7, 1964 (4th run)

18 bobsleighs at the start, 17 of them in the ranking.

The four-man bobsleigh competition should have started on February 4th, but the thaw messed up the schedule. In an overall ranking of the two training runs, Monti was ahead of Zardini and Thaler, followed by Emery, Wörmann and Schelle. After the first two rounds, Emery was ahead of Monti and Thaler. In the second run Sergio Zardini paid taxes in the "fox hole". The good performance of Austria I was due to the excellent helmsman Thaler and the starting performance of Nairz.

On February 6th, only the third run was run: For the time being the fourth run was also programmed, but it was postponed to February 7th before the start of the race. Thaler was able to improve to 2nd place, while Monti had a bad run into the "Hexenkessel". Since Zardini set the fastest time of the day, he still had a legitimate chance of winning silver or bronze. The last-placed Belgian bobsleigh punched a hole in the track after the "cauldron" so that the concrete came out over a length of about two meters. Nevertheless, the remaining five bobsleighs were allowed to go. This increased the damage, but fortunately it did not result in an accident.

The Austrian chance of winning silver was probably the deciding factor, with over 20,000 visitors coming to the final run (other figures were even 35,000). Austria I with starting number 6 was the first of the medal contenders to enter the race. Emery could then be celebrated as the winner. Zardini was hampered by the snow, Monti was last in line. The surprising victory of the Canadians (track record in the first run) also had to be seen under the aspect that they only drove this year with this line-up and there was no bobsleigh track in their home country - they had only limited training opportunities in Lake Placid and in Cortina d ' Ampezzo .

Web links

• Bobsleigh at the 1964 Winter Olympics in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Official report of the Olympic Winter Games 1964 (PDF; 21.1 MB)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Sport Zürich, January 29, 1964.
2. ↑ «Half time in the two-man bobsleigh: bad for us. Thaler from rank 4 to 7 - H. Isser injured ». In: Kurier Wien, February 1, 1964, p. 9.
3. ^ «Monti drove like the devil». In: Kronen-Zeitung, February 1, 1964, p. 15.
4. ↑ «Bobsleigh training: Thaler achieved third place in two runs». In: Kurier Wien, February 5, 1964, p. 8.
5. ↑ «Bob: Hopes for Bronze». In: Kurier Wien, February 6, 1964, p. 8.
6. ^ "Wonderful starter Nairz in action: Great third place in the four-man bobsleigh". In: Kronen-Zeitung, February 6, 1964, p. 19.
7. ↑ "Great moment: Our bobsled in second place. Today we are aiming for a silver medal!" In: Kurier Wien, February 7, 1964, p. 10.
8. ^ "Bob Austria I second behind Canadians". Courier Vienna, February 8, 1964, p. 7.
9. ↑ "First a thrill, then silver: the four-man bobsleigh made it!" In: Kronen-Zeitung, February 8, 1964, p. 17.