CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy — Germany left no doubt, again: It dominates the men's bobsled world.
Johannes Lochner left no doubt, either: In his farewell season, he's going out as the most unbeatable bobsledder on the planet.
Making it look as easy as one, two, three — or eins, zwei, drei, if you prefer — the Germans swept the medals in the two-man race at the Milan Cortina Olympics on Tuesday night, a show of absolute dominance. It was the second Olympic sweep in bobsled history; the other was by the Germans, also in two-man, at the Beijing Games four years ago.
And leading the way was Lochner, who got his first gold medal while posting the biggest Olympic two-man winning margin in nearly a half-century. The U.S. was the closest to thwarting the sweep; Frank Del Duca and Josh Williamson were fourth, just one spot from bronze.
''There's nothing better than when a plan works out,'' Lochner said as he wrapped his arm around brakeman Georg Fleischhauer. ''Speechless ... feeling so much happiness. I cannot describe this."
In what he says was the next-to-last race of his international career, Lochner teamed with Fleischhauer to finish the four-run competition in 3 minutes, 39.70 seconds for his third Olympic medal. Lochner — the favorite in this weekend's four-man race, which he plans as his finale — won by 1.34 seconds, the most lopsided margin in the Olympic two-man race in 46 years.
"To have this big a lead, it's unbelievable. We did it,'' Lochner said.
Francesco Friedrich, the gold medalist in two- and four-man at each of the last two Olympics, partnered with Alexander Schuller and was second in 3:41.04. Adam Ammour finished off the sweep, teaming with Alexander Schaller to win bronze in 3:41.52.
