Beijing 2022 Bobsleigh: Athletes to watch as Francesco Friedrich defends two-man crown

The men’s two-man bobsleigh competition begins at the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 on Monday (14 February) at Yanqing National Sliding Centre, with heat one starting at 20:05 local time.

Heats three and four are on Tuesday with the medals being decided after heat four, which is scheduled to start at 21:50.

At Beijing 2022, the two-man competition is held over four runs called "heats" on two consecutive days, with two heats per day.

Results are calculated by adding the times of all competition heats together, with the lowest aggregate time winning. Only the top 20 sleds will take part in the last heat.

At PyeongChang 2018 there was a rare dead heat for gold with Germany's Francesco Friedrich and Thorsten Margis sharing gold with Justin Kripps and Alexander Kopacz of Canada.

Kripps has a new brakeman in Cam Stones, but Friedrich and Margis remain together as they bid to add another Olympic title to their five world crowns as a duo.

Read on for some of the athletes to look out for.

Francesco Friedrich (GER)

Friedrich is the undisputed king of bobsleigh and the man to beat in Beijing.

The reigning gold medallist in the two-man and four-man bob, Friedrich has no fewer than 13 World Championship titles to his name including the last seven in a row.

His last world title was with Alexander Schueller, but Margis is back to push in the defence of their title.

Friedrich's Olympic debut at Sochi 2014 coincided with Germany's worst bobsleigh performance in half a century, but he has since established himself as one of the all-time greats of the sport.

He told Olympics.com, "I give my best in every race, it’s so much fun for me. At the start of my career, records didn’t interest me.

"But now that we are getting better, you often look at the records (as motivation) and the goal for Beijing should be the double gold. When we set records we are very happy with that but we don’t lose sight of the goal."

Hakeem Abdul-Saboor (USA)

Hakeem Abdul-Saboor is competing at his second Olympic Winter Games after finishing in 21st place at PyeongChang 2018.

The 34-year-old is a former star college football player at the University of Virginia-Wise but his hopes of pursuing a professional career in the sport or heading to the NFL were ended by successive serious knee injuries.

He was discovered by strength coaches and invited to a USA Bobsled combine, where he is said to have scored perfectly in every event.

The Team USA athlete is part of the national army program and is well known across social media for his bodybuilding and fitness efforts.

Abdul-Saboor will be pushing for driver Frank Delduca who is making his Olympic debut and, due to the pandemic, has had just two World Cup two-man bob races before Beijing.

Rudy Rinaldi (MON)

A bronze medallist at the Youth Olympic Games Innsbruck 2012, Rudy Rinaldi finished in 19th place during his Olympic Games debut in the two-man at PyeongChang 2018.

Monaco’s flag bearer at PyeongChang 2018, he’s since had multiple surgeries on his left foot which limited him to just two World Cup appearances in the 2020/21 season.

The principality has something of a history in bobsleigh with Prince Albert driving at five consecutive Games from Calgary 1988 through to Salt Lake 2002.

Rinaldi is doing the steering with Boris Vain his brakeman.

Justin Kripps (CAN)

The 35-year-old Canadian is the defending champion after he and Alex Kopacz tied for top spot with Friedrich and Margis in PyeongChang.

He has a new brakeman in Cam Stones and will be competing at his fourth Olympic Winter Games having made his debut at Vancouver 2010, where he finished fifth in the four-man event as a brakeman.

Kripps became a pilot after Vancouver and has gone from strength to strength, winning five World Championship medals as well as that Olympic gold.

Look out for his unusual pre-run ritual - before competing, he has been known to take deep breaths of peppermint oil and visualise the race, clap his hands twice outside the start house, and then speak to his sleds like they are wild stallions.

Shanwayne Stephens (JAM)

Shanwayne Stephens took up the sport in 2015 while in the Royal Air Force and in 2017 he took part in the Jamaican national team trials.

In the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, without access to gyms or training facilities, Stephens and Nimroy Turgott got their push training using a Mini Cooper on the streets around Peterborough, England, where Stephens lives.

His training techniques even impressed Queen Elizabeth II on a video call with British Armed Forces stationed around the world.

Stephens will also pilot Jamaica in the four-man event, which marks the nation’s first entry in the men’s four-man since Calgary 1988, which inspired the film Cool Runnings.

MORE: Jamaica bob driver Shanwayne Stephens is an RAF man who's got the Queen's back

Charlie Volker (USA)

Like Abdul-Saboor, Charlie Volker came through the US college football ranks having helped Princeton University win two conference titles as a running back.

The 24-year-old, who is also known as ‘Chunk’, was going to try out for the NFL before he was convinced to give bobsleigh a go.

In his first full season in the sport, 2021/22, Volker earned a World Cup podium; a third in Winterburg with pilot Hunter Church.

The pair are making their Olympic Winter Games debut with Church recovering from a fractured toe which saw him miss the Test Event in September.

Keep up with all the action in our Live Blog updates throughout Beijing 2022, here.