1980 Winter Olympics / Bobsleigh

Bobsleigh at the 1980 Winter Olympics
information
venue	North Elba
Competition venue	Mount Van Hoevenberg Olympic bobsleigh run
Nations	11
Athletes	78 (78 )
date	15.-24. February 1980
decisions	2
← Innsbruck 1976 Sarajevo 1984 →

With the XIII. At the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid , two bobsleigh competitions were held. The venue was the bobsled run on Mount Van Hoevenberg .

Balance sheet

Medal table

space	country				total
1	GDR	1	1	2	4th
2	Switzerland	1	1	-	2

Medalist

competitor	gold	silver	bronze
Two-man bobsleigh	Erich Schärer , Josef Benz	Bernhard Germeshausen , Hans-Jürgen Gerhardt	Meinhard Nehmer , Bogdan Musiol
Four-man bobsleigh	Meinhard Nehmer , Bogdan Musiol , Bernhard Germeshausen , Hans-Jürgen Gerhardt	Erich Schärer , Ulrich Bächli , Rudolf Marti , Josef Benz	Horst Schönau , Roland Wetzig , Detlef Richter , Andreas Kirchner

Results

(all times in min)

Two-man bobsleigh

space	country	athlete	1st run	2nd run	3rd run	4th run	total
1	SUI	Switzerland II: Erich Schärer , Josef Benz	1: 01.87	1: 02.76	1: 02.29	1: 02.44	4: 09.36
2	GDR	GDR II: Bernhard Germeshausen , Hans-Jürgen Gerhardt	1: 02.58	1: 02.48	1: 03.31	1: 02.56	4: 10.93
3	GDR	GDR I: Meinhard Nehmer , Bogdan Musiol	1: 02.39	1: 02.88	1: 02.86	1: 02.95	4: 11.08
4th	SUI	Switzerland I: Hans Hiltebrand , Walter Rahm	1: 02.37	1: 02.96	1: 03.35	1: 02.64	4: 11.32
5	United States	USA II: Howard Siler , Dick Nalley	1: 03.04	1: 03.04	1: 02.65	1: 03.00	4: 11.73
6th	United States	USA I: Brent Rushlaw , Joseph Tyler	1: 02.90	1: 02.81	1: 02.99	1: 03.42	4: 12.12
7th	AUT	Austria II: Fritz Sperling , Kurt Oberhöller	1: 03.58	1: 03.64	1: 03.13	1: 03.23	4: 13.58
8th	FRG	Germany I: Peter Hell , Heinz Busche	1: 03.87	1: 03.63	1: 02.91	1: 03.33	4: 13.74
9	AUT	Austria I: Franz Paulweber , Gerd Zaunschirm	1: 03.52	1: 03.67	1: 03.01	1: 03.70	4: 13.90
10	GBR	Great Britain I: Jonnie Woodall , John Howell	1: 04.12	1: 04.12	1: 03.65	1: 04.03	4: 15.92
12	FRG	Germany II: Georg Großmann , Alexander Wernsdorfer	1: 03.50	1: 04.93	1: 03.85	1: 03.85	4: 16.13

Runs 1 and 2: February 15, 1980 Runs
3 and 4: February 16, 1980

20 bobsleighs at the start, all in the ranking.

After 2 runs, Schärer was leading in 2: 04.63 ahead of Germeshausen (2: 05.06), Nehmer (2: 05.27), Hildebrand (2: 05.33); the two Austrian sledges, Paulweber (2: 07.19) and Sperling (2: 07.22), were in 7th and 8th place - Schärer achieved a track record of 1: 01.87 in the first run, which was the basis for the gold medal and on the second day, despite poor track conditions (plus snowfall), he further expanded his lead.

Four-man bobsleigh

space	country	athlete	1st run	2nd run	3rd run	4th run	total
1	GDR	GDR I: Meinhard Nehmer , Bogdan Musiol , Bernhard Germeshausen , Hans-Jürgen Gerhardt	0: 59.86	1: 00.03	0: 59.73	1: 00.30	3: 59.92
2	SUI	Switzerland I: Erich Schärer , Ulrich Bächli , Rudolf Marti , Josef Benz	1: 00.31	1: 00.41	1: 00.02	1: 00.13	4: 00.87
3	GDR	GDR II: Horst Schönau , Roland Wetzig , Detlef Richter , Andreas Kirchner	1: 00.24	1: 00.35	1: 00.04	1: 00.34	4: 00.97
4th	AUT	Austria I: Fritz Sperling , Bernhard Purkrabek , Heinrich Bergmüller , Franz Rednak	1: 00.75	1: 00.77	1: 00.41	1: 00.69	4: 02.62
5	AUT	Austria II: Walter Delle Karth , Kurt Oberhöller , Franz Paulweber , Gerhard Zaunschirm	1: 00.91	1: 01.12	1: 00.25	1: 00.67	4: 02.95
6th	SUI	Switzerland II: Hans Hiltebrand , Armin Baumgartner , Ulrich Schindler , Walter Rahm	1: 01.13	1: 01.00	1: 00.54	1: 01.02	4: 03.69
7th	FRG	Germany I: Peter Hell , Hans Wagner , Heinz Busche , Walter Barfuss	1: 01.14	1: 01.22	1: 00.57	1: 01.47	4: 04.40
8th	ROME	Romania I: Dragoş Panaitescu-Rapan , Dorel Cristudor , Sandu Mitrofan , Gheorghe Lixandru	1: 01.42	1: 01.32	1: 00.61	1: 01.33	4: 04.68
9	GBR	Great Britain I: Jonnie Woodall , Tony Wallington , Corrie Brown , John Howell	1: 01.44	1: 01.42	1: 00.98	1: 01.08	4: 04.92
10	FRG	Germany II: Alois Schnorbus , Lothar Pongratz , Jürgen Hofmann , Martin Meinberg	1: 01.54	1: 01.47	1: 00.93	1: 01.21	4: 05.15

Runs 1 and 2: February 23, 1980 Runs
3 and 4: February 24, 1980

17 bobsleighs at the start, 15 of them in the classification (Bob Sweden I disqualified in the last run, Bob Canada I eliminated in the third run)
Hiltebrand was in training ahead of Nehmer and Austria I (Sperling), Switzerland I (Schärer), Sweden I (Eriksson ) and Austria III (Delle Karth) ahead; Austria II (Paul Krenn) was eliminated from the competition in 14th place.

Meinhard Nehmer set a track record in the first run, his 59:86 were below the one-minute limit for the first time, and he was able to top this record again in the third run (59:73). Now, at the age of 39, he ended his impressive career with a total of three Olympic gold medals.

Fritz Sperling was eliminated from the fight for medals after the first day, in the third run he came too high in the Shady . At Delle Karth, the small mistakes added up. Nevertheless, one could be satisfied with ranks 4 and 5. The ranking list after two runs was GDR I, GDR II, SUI I, AUT 1, but Fritz Sperling was almost a second behind the bronze rank, so the chance of a medal was low.

Web links

• Bobsleigh at the 1980 Winter Olympics in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Official report of the 1980 Winter Olympics (PDF; 3.2 MB)

Individual evidence

1. ^ "Duel Switzerland - GDR" . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna February 16, 1980, p. 08 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
2. ↑ Columns 4 and 5, below: “E. Superior to Schärer's two-man bobsleigh ” . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna February 17, 1980, p. 9 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
3. ↑ Columns 2 and 3, below: “Dellekarth in the fourth third” . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna February 22, 1980, p. 18 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
4. ↑ Columns 1 and 2 above: "Bob: only a slim chance" . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna February 24, 1980, p. 8 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
5. ↑ Columns 2 and 3 middle: “Last gold for takers” . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna February 25, 1980, p. 8 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).