WINTER OLYMPICS : Bobsledding : U.S. Silently Gets Into Position for Medal

Brent Rushlaw, the silent man of the otherwise verbose U.S. Olympic bobsled team, did his talking with his driving here Saturday. He put his four-man team into position to win a medal.

Rushlaw, 36, a four-time Olympian who sports a walrus mustache, a pot belly and a no-comment attitude, finished the first two of four heats in fifth place. More important, the veteran slider from Saranac Lake, N.Y., was only 19/100ths of a second out of third going into today’s final runs with a favorable starting spot, third, in his final run.

“If he drives like he did today, and gets a little bit of good luck, maybe he could be there,” teammate Matt Roy said of Rushlaw’s medal chances. “If anybody that’s ahead of him falters a little bit and nothing happens to him. . . . “

Rushlaw will start the third heat today 16th in the 26-sled field, and if he can maintain or improve his position in that heat, he will be in strong contention to win the first U.S. bobsledding medal since 1956.

Still, he has some formidable opposition ahead of him.

Leading the pack is East German Wolfgang Hoppe, two-man and four-man gold medalist in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, four years ago and the ranking star of the sledding world.

Second is Ianis Kipours of the Soviet Union, who won the two-man title here last Monday. Swiss sleds driven by Ekkehard Fasser and Hans Hiltebrand are third and fourth, respectively, and the Swiss generally have the fastest sleds in the Western world.

Kipours showed what a favorable spot in the draw can do for a driver in his second run Saturday, even though second-run times were slower than first. He and Rushlaw were tied for fourth after the first heat, which both had started from the middle. Kipours’ was the first sled down the track in the second run, however, and he wound up with the fastest time of the heat.

Rushlaw started third from last and was nearly a second slower than he had been in his early first run. Even so, his late run was eighth-best of the round.

Rushlaw’s impressive showing was at least a little surprising, since his practice times had not been among the fastest, but he ran true to form afterward, refusing to talk with reporters. He instructed his sledmates to keep their mouths shut, too.

Rushlaw has avoided the press since his arrival here and was one of the few bobsledders who stayed out of the raging controversy involving the make-up of the team.

“He’s just a quiet guy,” Roy said of his teammate. “He doesn’t talk much to us, either.”

Roy had a disappointing first run, couldn’t improve on it the second time around and stood only 17th, seven spots lower than he had hoped to be.

If others were surprised at Rushlaw’s showing, Coach Jeff Jost wasn’t, he said.

“Rushlaw has a way of saving himself for a race. He has the ability to rise with the pressure.”

Jost said that to win a medal, Rushlaw should not change a thing.

“(He should) just do exactly what he did today.

“He’s driving very good right now, he’s got the feel, he’s in the groove,” Jost said. “His head’s in the right place right now. Nothing’s bothering him, he’s happy with himself.

“He made a minute little mistake here the second trip that didn’t bother him too much. He came out of Turn 8 just a little early. He touched on the wall and drifted over, then got back on (line). He lost a little bit but not much. He was able to maintain it straight, instead of drifting.”

Roy said he was happy with his teammate’s success.

“Brent’s doing really well,” he said. “We hoped that we would be there. Unfortunately, we’re not. We’re a little disappointed with our times today. Our first trip wasn’t particularly good. Our second trip, we didn’t think was that bad. Brent’s doing fantastic and that’s great.

“I guess I was just playing with (the steering ropes) too much, hoping for too good a run or something, and going from one side to the other. I didn’t really get set anywhere.”