Bobsleigh pilots are versatile athletes. Overall, they tend to be managers who are also good at directing. You take care of countless tasks, but above all take care of the team. These are the men or women who, within a few seconds, bring the bob, which weighs up to 300 kilos, to the highest possible speed, then in a cleverly devised sequence fold themselves into the narrow bob cigar and duck their heads. No bob without pushers, but it looks like there won’t be any more soon.
At least those who matter, fears Francesco Friedrich from Pirna in Saxony, the best bobsleigh pilot of that time and probably also in the history of this sport. Before the bobsleigh season starts next week in Whistler near Vancouver in Canada, Friedrich once again expressed the inner conflict that plagues almost all competitive winter athletes. The desire for the upcoming season and at the same time the concern for the future.
The question remains whether he will be able to repress the worry about the whole thing this time as well
Because nature only lures with green meadows far up into the rocky areas, piste-related disciplines are increasingly dependent on the packed snow from summer depots. But even ice sports, which need a lot of energy to cool down a 1.5-kilometer bobsleigh and toboggan run for a whole winter, are faced with an energy problem. Provided that in a few years they still get a four-sled full of brakes, as Friedrich recently did in the daily newspaper The world explained. Because pushers mostly come from other disciplines, such as athletics, but: “Fewer and fewer are switching to bobsleigh.”
Friedrich, who perhaps feels the slight inner turmoil most intensely, also has a lot of joy these days. Because his sport, he says, represents much more than just brutally pushing the bar and then gently steering the steering cable with a great deal of sensitivity. His sport, says Friedrich, is pure fulfillment, especially outside of the big carbon cigar when no audience is cheering him for the next gold medal. Friedrich is not the type to take his free time away from the efforts of the small business that is a bobsled team. On the contrary: “Everything is fun for me there.” Being a bobsleigh pilot is incredibly complex. Many athletes have experts draw up material or planning, Friedrich happily throws himself into testing new runners, looking for brakes or booking the next trip overseas.
These plans include the exact structure of the final major phase that is about to begin at Whistler. There are still four winters to go and then after the Olympic Games in Cortina d’Ampezzo it should be over. Friedrich is already an authority in his sport, with eleven world titles he has more than anyone else. In addition, he and his brakemen achieved gold runs in both sleds at the games in Pyeongchang and Beijing. The successes of his everyday bobsleigh work also show that Friedrich loves his job, otherwise he would not have managed to win the 66 World Cups, also a record.
The question remains whether he will be able to suppress worries about the whole this time, just as top athletes also ignore everyday worries. Or whether Friedrich’s gloomy vision of the lack of pushers, and of ice rinks that are taken out of service due to costs and environmental pollution, preoccupies him more than the sport in the next few years. In any case, he’s really worried about what has been his passion so far. Friedrich says: “The time will come when there will be no more bobsleds. Our grandchildren will probably only learn about bobsleigh from the history books.”
There is still time to realize an environmentally friendly bobsleigh and toboggan future
That sounds like an apocalyptic mood, and it may have actually crept over him. Ice rinks are spectacular, and tourists can experience a bit of downforce and speed on them in bobsleigh taxis. And yes, at the moment there is also a Wok World Championship, a fun race in which World Cup drivers also take part. But is that enough in the long run to maintain these huge systems, which have to be laboriously iced over, winter after winter?
In any case, Friedrich’s concerns are understandable. No athlete wants to be the last big winner in their discipline. But maybe there is still some time to realize concepts for an environmentally friendly future of bobsleigh and tobogganing. With fewer trains, but with a technology that feeds the necessary energy into the train as sparingly as possible, as Friedrich demands. All of this would have to be precisely designed by railway experts, but the record pilot already has precise ideas for his own future, the end of his career. In Cortina, in the winter of 2026, he could also become the Olympic bobsleigh record holder with a fifth title. But maybe something else is more important to him.
Because the time has finally come. Finally, his loved ones should also be there at the Olympic Games, there are only 150 friends and relatives. He would have loved to have celebrated earlier at the Olympics with them, to whom he partly owed a lot, but that was too far away. But now: Cortina! Almost around the corner. That should be possible. The bob pilot, bob entrepreneur, technician and planner Friedrich already has an idea – with a coach, or maybe two.