Holcomb rides the Night Train to Olympic bobsleigh gold

From Sportsbeat staff, in Whistler

 IT might have been mid-afternoon in Whistler but the USA's Steven Holcomb rode the Night Train all the way to four-man Olympic bobsleigh gold.

GOLDEN BOYS: (l-r) Justin Olsen and Steven Holcomb celebrate together at the Whistler Sliding Centre after capturing four-man bobsleigh gold (Getty Images)

Holcomb teamed up with Steve Mesler, Curtis Tomasevicz and Justin Olsen to Olympic gold to the World Championship title he won last year in Lake Placid in commanding fashion, posting three of the four fastest times across the four runs.

Two of his runs were track records as he navigated "the Night Train," the rocket-on-ice sled designed with NASCAR technology and powered by American muscle all the way to the USA's first male bobsleigh gold for 62 years.

In total, the American sled clocked a combined time of 3:24.46 minutes, good enough to take gold by 0.38, having led the competition since the very first run in Whistler.

"It's incredible. We've been working so hard the last four years and it's finally paid off," said Holcomb.

"I saw this gold medal all the way back in 1994. That's when I really knew I wanted an Olympic gold medal.

"Forty-five hundredths is a huge lead but in a way, it's not a big lead at all.  But now we can say no more 62 years. We'll start the clock over. Now it's going to be four years."

Silver went to Andre Lange, while Lyndon Rush of Canada was forced to settle for bronze, just 0.01 behind the German.

Rush was in silver position heading into the final run but Lange, desperate to keep his flawless Olympic record going as two-time defending champion edged him out for silver.

The Canadian will take solace in the fact that this is first Olympic appearance and his four-man bronze is a notable improvement on his two-man performance, having suffered a crash in that event.

Crucial to Holcomb's success may have been his lightning fast sled, perfectly suited to the Whistler track - unquestionably the quickest in the world.

But Holcomb's driving skills have been unrivalled in Whistler as was the only driver to breeze through the treacherous 13th corner on each of his four runs.

In total, 11 of the 29-strong field in the four-man competition crashed at corner 13 - labeled 50-50 in reference to the chances of remaining upright.

"Unfortunately, I've had my problems there as well. In the two-man, I had to have a little talk with 50-50 and made sure we had everything worked," added Holcomb.

"It's a tricky track -  it's the fastest in the world. There's no where else you can train for 95 mph. It makes it interesting.

"But when you come in without a lot of experience, it's going to be a challenge to do it cleanly."

Lange saw his chances of a fifth Olympic gold medal effectively go up in smoke when he came within a whisker of crashing at that corner but Holcomb had no such troubles and putting the finishing touches to gold on Saturday.

But Lange was forced to settle for silver in his swansong Olympic appearance for the first time, having captured gold in his four previous competitions.

"He's been a great competitor," said Holcomb of his German rival. "He's definitely pushed my game to a greater level.

"Competition breeds excellence and as he gets better and better continually, it's made me chase myself and made me better. It's going to be a different tour in the next four years without him around."

 AS IT HAPPENS: Day 16 of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver