'Night Train' gives US 4-man bobsled gold medal

WHISTLER, British Columbia (AP) Steven Holcomb drove USA-1 to the Olympic gold medal in four-man bobsledding Saturday, ending a 62-year drought for the Americans in the event.

It was the first gold medal for the U.S. in sliding's signature race since Francis Tyler won for the Americans at St. Moritz in 1948.

Holcomb's four-run time was 3 minutes, 24.46 seconds, with Justin Olsen, Steve Mesler and Curt Tomasevicz pushing for him again - just as they did when they won the world championship a year ago.

"This is bigger," U.S. coach Brian Shimer said.

German legend Andre Lange, who failed to win a gold medal for the first time in five Olympic events, had a nearly perfect final run to take the silver in what he said would be his final race. Lange finished 0.38 seconds behind Holcomb.

Lyndon Rush drove Canada-1 to the bronze.

After Holcomb and his sledmates crossed the finish line for the last time, they threw their arms in the air before wrapping each other in American flags. Holcomb hoisted his helmet high as family and friends craned for photographs, and a party that the U.S. program had been waiting to throw for more than six decades was finally getting started.

"This will take a while for it to sink in," Holcomb said. "You work so hard and when you finally get there its like, 'Well, now what? I don't know what to do.' We've worked so hard and gone through so much in the last four years to end on a high note like this is huge. It's overwhelming."

USA-3 driver Mike Kohn was a push athlete for Shimer's sled at those 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, when Todd Hays drove to silver and Shimer got the Americans a bronze.

"This is a great moment," said Kohn, who finished 13th. "It's hopefully going to change the program and bring some publicity and some funding to this sport, just like it did in '02 when we won silver and bronze."

The U.S. had never been closer to being kings of the bobsled mountain - until now.

"It's a great thing for the U.S.," Canada-2 driver Pierre Lueders said. "They've been competitive in bobsled for so long, but have been shut out quite a few times. He definitely is a talent and I can't wait to see how he's going to do four years from now."

Holcomb had a lead of 0.40 seconds over Rush after Friday's first two runs, a giant advantage in sliding.

"It was actually torture to have to wait for a whole night for this," said Darrin Steele, CEO of the U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton Federation.

Holcomb was walking around trackside about an hour before the final heat, shaking his finger, mouthing the words "one more." With a lead of 0.45 seconds over Rush, all Holcomb needed to do was get his sled down the mountain without a huge mishap, knowing his lead was such that no one could catch him.

It's barely been two weeks since Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili crashed during a luge training run and died just hours before the opening ceremony of the Vancouver Games, and the Olympic track has been a lightning rod of criticism since. There were dozens of crashes on the super-fast surface, six of them during Friday's four-man heats alone.

It's easily the toughest track in the world. Holcomb somehow made it look toothless.

It wasn't long ago that Holcomb had 20-500 vision - "profound visual impairment" - that could have ended his bobsledding career before people helped him scrape up $15,000 to have contact lenses embedded behind his iris to correct a degenerative condition. It's not a coincidence that he's vaulted atop the bobsled world since.

"When they raise the flag and play The Star-Spangled Banner for your son," said Steve Holcomb, the bobsledder's father, his voice choking at the thought, "well, that's pretty cool."

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