If Hays retires after these games, there are no US pilot to fill his shoes. Holcomb and Kohn are years from being ready. Anyone on the inside know who’s waiting in the wings.
Was Pavle the best brakeman? Perhaps in the pool of athletes the USBSF has to choose from. BTW, he looks a little lighter, listed at 218? If USBSF wants to win more medals, they’ve got to do a better job recruiting.
Also, enough with the Bodine sleds. Lets get a German or Italian-made sled. I heard Hays bought German runners for the Bodine. That’s like putting Formula-1 tires on a VW Beetle. I know he ran the sled well in the World Cup, but the European sleds/runners get faster and faster as they go down the run. I know it’s also the pilot, but the Bodine’s sometimes look like a draft horse in the Preakness.
Congrats to the Germans, Lueders (sp) and the Swiss.
Why would Hayes retire?? He has no reason to like you said no one is ready to take his spot so he has no one pushing him out, he is young and still very competitive.
Pavle is a freak plain and simple the USBSF does a good job recruiting. They have amazing athletes in their Bob program, it was mentioned on this site that most of the are former div 1 football players or track guys.
I have no idea about the sled as I am a skeleton guy from what I hear hayes spends a ton of time doing reaserch into building faster sleds. He lost time because he drove the top poorly in comparison to Leuders and the Lange. But we will see how he does in 4 man he was better there this year than in 2 man.
primo, I will ease up on Hays until after the 4-man. I thought he drove well. Hays said it himself, he wants to retire and coach football. Thirty-six y.o. and I suppose he’s tired of the sport.
The Bodine sled and/or runners just doesn’t pick up speed down the run.
jov_jov, what in your opinion makes Pavle a “freak”? I disagree BTW.
I’ve been very disappointed by the us…the pushing times were good during day one…but not a good race…hope for the 4 man…bodine sleds in female races are always good…would not blame them, maybe runners…plus some driving errors by hays…regarding athletes…pavle is really good, but obvuiously in the US you can find better…, however their push times were not so far from top canadian, swiss russian(what a beast Voevoda is???) germany team…for the future, kohn has a lot of potential…
“How much can he bench?” I asked incredulously when I first saw Pavle Jovanovic, the world’s top brakeman and US gold medal hopeful (with Todd Hays) in this year’s Olympic games. Someone had just whispered some of his stats and I instantly felt small and weak, very small and weak.
After all, how many of you have ever seen a guy who is 6’ tall, 220lbs, under 6% body fat, can run 30m in 3.54 sec, can clean 167.5kg (368.5lbs), and can squat 260kg (572lbs)?
Before his suspension in 2002 Pavle didn’t even know how to clean properly and his squat was no where close to parallel. He could muscle up a reverse curl/clean with 225. His older brother is a well-known bodybuilder from the Jersey shore area that Pavle looks up to very much. Most of his philosphy comes/came from him.
Whoever coached him up to those numbers did a heck of a job.
Stuart McMillan I think…I really liked his training phylosophy, for the little I know from past forum discussions and his messages until some years ago.
actually, usa won the silver on female bobsled, and Italy broze…really happy for both…(I remeber USA brake, we were on the same truck in cortina, getting the bobsled back to the start:)) not so bad…now we’ll see 4 men…
It was really fun to watch all the Olympic 2 and 4 competitions. Lascelles Brown was physically impressive…sorry for Lueders that he could not make a medal in the 4.
Really impresive starts by CAN and the swiss…
I guess the Germans have simply great sleighs.
A commentator was talking about the Germans are still using 20 year old blades developed by GDR engineers on their new sleighs.
kuske is a beast, but not 144kg!!..germans have the best sleds and runners,I saw their europa cup teams, and their runners are not old for sure…plus, the top sleds come from FES, have unique shape developed in wind tunnel…the best push came fromswiss in 4 man, not a surpirse with beat hefti and cedric grand(swiss record holder in 60m indoor, 6"60, and now 103 kilos a man…)
Holcomb drove well. Impressed with his performance.
Read the US was bitching about “plasma injected implants” on the German runners. Sounds like sour grapes. The usual rhetoric when the US loses.
USBSF needs to get more money from their sponsers to attract a higher level of athlete and keep their drivers in Europe longer getting in more training runs. Why do you think the US medaled in Salt Lake City? More practice runs down the home course.
Either pay more money, become a “suitcase sport” where you bring in stud push-athletes every four years for a monster push or continue to operate the way they currently exist.
Also hire a European driving coach.
I don’t think Kuske is 144kg (316lb) as well. Maybe 118kg (260lb) - 122kg (270lb).
This year canada had 2 teams in europa cup, maybe the US should do the same…in italy we have lots of problems, no great athletes, lack of fundings…we dominated bobsledding from the 50s to mid 70s…then almost nothing, except in mid 90s Huber, and current coach Tartaglia, a beast in pushing, but as you can see from our push times…not many of them now…also the materials, not the best here, we have drivers investing their own money to optimize the sled…
What can I say? In Austria we have one of the best drivers, but no money, so no new sleighs and worst of all no pushers, because we have almost no sprinters!
BTW: Kuske is just above 100 kg, the stats said 104 one year ago…
your no money is much more than italy’s:) however, there is still a good activity in all sliding sports in Igls., the track is working and involving a good number of athletes.whereas here…nothing about that…
Stampfler is a good driver, but like Mingeon has never had in the pushstart his best asset…
Who is the top rated sprinter in Osterreich currently?..I think trackk times matters for sure, but the push start is relly peculiar…and swiss is not famous for sprinters, but have a monster start…
You are surely right about Igls - but the sprinters, well, the top 5 this year are (and the 5 are the only sprinters worth mentioning - and except for Lachkovics even their times are inernationally unimportant and therefore they either do hurdles or concentrate longer sprints):
6,68 Lachkovics, Martin
6,80 Grill, Benjamin
6,82 Kwitt, Roland
6,83 Osovic, Sergey
6,84 Lichtenegger, Elmar
Lachkovics is the kind of beast you could use as pusher (i guess he’s got hte second biggest glutes after Coby Miller ), but afaik the only sprinters who are involved in sleigh is one guy about 180cm and 90kg who is a 11.30 runner and a former Cuban decatlete with 100kg.
the 2 guys you said where at the olympics?..well, here this year we had 4-5 guys under 6"80 if I remember…so not a grat difference…the top one 6"66? have to check…
Italy got the better sprinters, no question - btw: just looked up IAAF:
6.66 Stefano Dacastello ITA 17 02 1980 28 01 2006
6.67 Koura Kaba Fantoni ITA 28 08 1984 04 02 2006
6.69 Francesco Scuderi ITA 04 10 1977 19 02 2006
Will they compete in Moscow?
Well Lachkovits was in the Olympics 1996 and 2000 (but always dropped out first round), then broke his leg in a traffic accident (strange seems to happen to sprinters quite often), but he’s on the way back training with Karin Mayers former coach (before she moved to GB’s Arnold who could not make her improve at all…) Lichtenegger is always good for a final and made indoor EU champ silver already…but that’s it, they are both over30 and no real new talents in sight…
btw Imeant 2 bobsledders at torino!:)…there is also anceschi at 6"76 I think,dacastello and kak fantoni times were obtained in a track were ,…every one goes faster…at the italian indoors for example kaba fantoni run just below 6"80…
), but afaik the only sprinters who are involved in sleigh is one guy about 180cm and 90kg who is a 11.30 runner and a former Cuban decatlete with 100kg.