BOBSLED

The United States has not won a bobsled medal since the four-man team took a gold at St. Moritz in 1948. The field in Nagano is thought to be wide open, with the absence of two of the sport’s most illustrious competitors. The top U.S. driver, Brian Shimer, has recovered from the embarrassment of Lillehammer, where his four-man team was disqualified for overheating the sled’s steel runners to make it glide faster on the ice. Shimer won gold and silver medals in World cup races on the Nagano track last February, the first double medal by an American since 1961.

The Course

This is Japan’s first artificially iced track. It was nicknamed “Spiral” because of the winding track and dynamic movements of the sleds. The course is made of concrete with refrigeration pipes.

Length: 4,460 feet

Vertical drop: 370 feet

People to Watch

Two bobsled legends -- Germany’s Wolfgang Hoppe and Switzerland’s Gustav Weder -- will not compete.

Hoppe, who has won 33 Olympic, World Cup and European medals, failed to qualify for the German team. Weder, who won the two-man gold in the last two Olympics and was second in four-man at Lillehammer, has retired.

Among the new medal favorites is Reto Gotschi of Switzerland. Also in that group are two German drivers, Harald Czudaj, who won the four-man at Lillehammer, and who is coming back from a torn Achilles’ tendon and Canada’s Pierre Lueders.

Italy’s Huber brothers -- Guenter, Norbert and Wilfried -- represent the first family of sledding. Wilfried and Norbert were 1-2 in the luge doubles at Lillehammer, and Guenter won a bronze in the two-man bobsled.

Inside Info

U.S. bobsledders, for many years, had to borrow equipment or copy the designs of European sleds. The first sled Brian Shimer owned was one he bought in 1991 from Swiss driver Nico Baracchi for $21,000. His father had to take a second mortgage on their house to pay for it.

The process changed in 1992, when NASCAR driver Geoff Bodine took a bobsled ride, became infatuated and went into the design business. U.S. drivers had only six months to work with and refine the Bo-Dyn sleds before Lillehammer, but subsequent refinements by Bodine and engineer Bob Cuneo of Chassis Dynamics in Connecticut contributed to the World Cup success of 1997, particularly in the two-man model, and have fueled a new optimism among U.S. sledders.

“We’re dialed in on those sleds now,” Shimer said. “We’re very close to getting it right.”

TWO-MAN AND FOUR MAN BOBSLEDS

Two-man bobsled consists of a driver who steers and a brakeman who stops the sled. Four-man has a driver, brakeman and two pushers who act as ballast and assist with the crucial push that gives the sled its speed.

STEERING: A slight movement of the fingers is all that is necessary to control the front rudders.

RUNNERS: Four steel “ice skates” are the runners on which the sled rides.

BRAKE: Brakeman pulls on the brake attached to the underside of the bobsled, forcing the grooved end of it to drag on the ice.

Start

Crew members start from a standing position, give the best push they can, then jump into the sled and crouch down to reduce air resistance and try to ride as stably as possible. The driver keeps his head up and steers the sled as it goes nearly 90 mph.

Runs are timed to the nearest 1/100th of a second. Winners are the sleds with the lowest combined time after all runs.

Sources: “The Olympic Fact Book/A Spectator’s Guide to the Winter Olympics,” “Winter Olympics Made Simple;” Associated Press. Researched by ROB HERNANDEZ AND ROSS NEWHAN / Los Angeles Times