2010 Winter Olympics: USA End Bobsleigh Gold Medal Drought

While Canada will be on their way towards earning the most gold medals at these Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games, the USA will almost undoubtedly finish with the most medals at 37 (not including the men's 50 km cross country race on Sunday).

And one of those 37 will be a gold medal in bobsleigh. The last time the USA earned gold was at St. Moritz, Switzerland in 1948. 

On Saturday at the Whistler Sliding Centre, the long wait had ended.

"One more run. Let's do it," said USA-1 lead driver Steven Holcomb.

The "Night Train" known as USA-1, led by Holcomb, Steve Mesler, Curtis Tomasevicz and Justin Olsen, finished first with a combined time of 3:24.46, 0.38 seconds better than Germany 1, led by Andre Lange, Kevin Kuske, Alexander Roediger, and Martin Putze.

Canada-1, led by Lyndon Rush, David Bissett, Lascelles Brown, and Chris Le Bihan, were in silver medal position but were unfortunate to have slowed down drastically in the fourth heat to earn the bronze.

"They embarrassed the field," an inconsolable Rush said. "They showed up in our backyard and it's kind of like the theme of these Olympic Games. The Americans have shown up in Canada and whipped us."

"This will take a while for it to sink in," Holcomb said on the historic win.. "You work so hard and when you finally get there it's like, 'Well, now what? I don't know what to do.' We've worked so hard and gone through so much in the last four years. 

"To end on a high note like this is huge. It's overwhelming."

"You can't do any better," said a tearful U.S. coach Brian Shimer, a bronze medalist at the Salt Lake 2002 Winter Olympic Games.

USA-3, led by Mike Kohn, Nick Cunningham, Jamie Moriarty and Bill Schuffenhauer, finished 13th with a combined time of 3:27.32, 2.86 seconds behind USA-1. 

Nonetheless, Kohn was ecstatic about USA-1 ending the drought. "It's huge. This is a great moment."

Darrin Steele, CEO of the U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton Federation, put the gold medal in perspective.

"It means an awful lot," Steele said. "This has been a long road. But all the components came together. You put a sled and a team together, and you never know how it's going to go."

"It's a great thing for the U.S.," Canada-2 driver Pierre Lueders said. "They've been competitive in bobsled for so long, but have been shut out quite a few times. He definitely is a talent, and I can't wait to see how he's going to do four years from now."

Canada-2, led by Lueders, Justin Kripps, Neville Wright and Jesse Lumsden, finished fifth with a combined time of 3:25.60.

USA-2, led by John Napier, Christopher Foot, Steven Langton and Charles Berkeley, suffered an accident during Heat 2 on Thursday and were unable to continue.