Francesco FRIEDRICH

World Championship titles flow on the way to Friedrich’s journey to first Olympic gold

But that setback only served to spur him on to a reign of dominance at World Cups and World Championships.

After Friedrich's second world two-man bob title in 2015, coach Gerd Leopold said, "Franz is a talent that you only see once every hundred years. He has everything needed to make bobsleigh history over the years to come; he is capable of putting his failures behind him and drawing astute conclusions from them."

His charge has certainly lived up to that lofty billing, winning seven consecutive two-man world titles and four straight four-man crowns.

Friedrich also achieved success on the biggest stage of all, although victory in the two-man bob appeared unlikely after the first day with he and Thorsten Margis lying in fifth place overnight.

But a track record in heat three and the quickest time on the fourth and final run saw the pair tie for gold with Canada's Justin Kripps and Alex Kopacz.

It was not the first time Friedrich had shared the spoils. A year earlier, he and fellow German Johannes Lochner clocked identical aggregate times in the World Championship four-man bob event.

He said afterwards, "It's really crazy! There were 0.06 seconds between us and we thought that the Canadians were going to win, or that it could end in a draw. I was hoping that it would end like that, and that it would be like at the World Championships in the fours last year, and that's what happened. Fantastic! We have worked so many years for this!"

The dream continues: Friedrich writes his name in the Olympic history books

That was just the start. In the four-man, Friedrich - with Margis, Candy Bauer and Martin Grothkopp - dominated from the start with the fastest time in each of the first three heats making the fourth run a victory cruise. They finished over half a second clear of the chasing pack to make Friedrich the sixth bobsleigh pilot to complete the two-man and four-man double at the same Games.

That Olympic triumph was backed up by near-total supremacy with Friedrich taking his World Cup wins tally to 44 in two-man and 22 in four-man.

He was the hot favourite for both events at Beijing 2022 and promptly delivered.

Together with Margis again in the two-man, Friedrich set track records in heats one and three on his way to victory by over Lochner by almost half a second.

Lochner set a track record in the opening heat of the four-man, but Friedrich - with Margis, Bauer and Alexander Schueller - was quickest on each of the next three runs to complete an unprecedented double-double of bobsleigh titles.

Only Andre Lange had previously retained the two-man (2006, 2010) and four-man titles (2002, 2006) but Friedrich is the first to do the double twice at the same Games.

He said, "We are so happy, and the boys did an amazing job. All those in the background helped us. Without that, it would be not possible to do this.

"I'm lucky that what I'm doing is my job, it's what I love. There's only so much time you have in life that you can perform sport at this level. We take every day, every hour and every second to work flat out to do the best we can."

Friedrich's attention to detail is legendary. The team is also involved in a bakery in his home region of Saxony with some of the proceeds used to fund the team.

The bobsleigh legend will be 36 at Milano Cortina 2026 where he could add more gold to his already brilliant legacy.