Wow rough ride - super fast start but one of the push bars stayed up which caused a really bumpy ride. Their slowest time by far of the four runs but they are in 1st at the moment.

Won't last but they will finish no worse than 9th.

They do finish 9th overall - congrats. I actually think that technical issue with the push bar might have cost them one spot (they might have finished ahead of the Germans' 3rd team otherwise). Sam's pushing was great - his team had the 2nd fastest start in the final run, only behind a Canadian team whose anchor was on a bronze medal winning 4x100 meter team (although they were later DQ'ed for running out of their lane in London).

Germany's #1 team finishes 1st easily. South Korea and Germany #2 tied for the silver.

(02-24-2018 10:01 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  They do finish 9th overall - congrats. I actually think that technical issue with the push bar might have cost them one spot (they might have finished ahead of the Germans' 3rd team otherwise). Sam's pushing was great - his team had the 2nd fastest start in the final run, only behind a Canadian team whose anchor was on a bronze medal winning 4x100 meter team (although they were later DQ'ed for running out of their lane in London).

Germany's #1 team finishes 1st easily. South Korea and Germany #2 tied for the silver.

Do you have access to the start times for all 4 runs? It would be interesting to see where Sam’s team placed in terms of cumulative start times.

(02-24-2018 10:13 PM)Tiki Owl Wrote:  

(02-24-2018 10:01 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  They do finish 9th overall - congrats. I actually think that technical issue with the push bar might have cost them one spot (they might have finished ahead of the Germans' 3rd team otherwise). Sam's pushing was great - his team had the 2nd fastest start in the final run, only behind a Canadian team whose anchor was on a bronze medal winning 4x100 meter team (although they were later DQ'ed for running out of their lane in London).

Germany's #1 team finishes 1st easily. South Korea and Germany #2 tied for the silver.

Do you have access to the start times for all 4 runs? It would be interesting to see where Sam’s team placed in terms of cumulative start times.

(02-24-2018 10:13 PM)Tiki Owl Wrote:  

(02-24-2018 10:01 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  They do finish 9th overall - congrats. I actually think that technical issue with the push bar might have cost them one spot (they might have finished ahead of the Germans' 3rd team otherwise). Sam's pushing was great - his team had the 2nd fastest start in the final run, only behind a Canadian team whose anchor was on a bronze medal winning 4x100 meter team (although they were later DQ'ed for running out of their lane in London).

Germany's #1 team finishes 1st easily. South Korea and Germany #2 tied for the silver.

Do you have access to the start times for all 4 runs? It would be interesting to see where Sam’s team placed in terms of cumulative start times.

https://www.pyeongchang2018.com/en/game-...0400--.pdf

This page has all of the start times for all 4 runs of all the sleds. I haven't gone and added them all up, but based on rank, it looks like they'd place 4th in starts overall behind CAN-1, GER-1, and LAT-1.

As a bonus, here's my shot of McGuffie's sled in turn 16 of run #4. Sam's the one in the back.

Looks like he knows how to lower the head running through the hole. That's an incredible about of tuck. I usually think the 4th guy usually is closer to the height of the other helmets (which should all be trying to get in the slipstream of the driver's helmet).

(02-25-2018 09:29 PM)gsloth Wrote:  Looks like he knows how to lower the head running through the hole. That's an incredible about of tuck. I usually think the 4th guy usually is closer to the height of the other helmets (which should all be trying to get in the slipstream of the driver's helmet).

A few years ago, I had a chance to ride the bobsled at Utah Olympic Park in Park City. The pilot is a pro, and they take three passengers. In our briefing, we were told NOT to emulate the neck tuck that the pros do, as apparently it's a fairly dangerous position if you don't do it right (and also once you put your head down, you can't really get it back up). Instead we were told to keep our necks vertical but with our heads scrunched down toward our shoulders. The scrunching is important to keep your neck from whipping forward or backward. (Sounds appealing, doesn't it?)

A few other impressions:
- It took about 15 minutes to get the three passengers loaded into the sled behind the pilot -- after which we were pushed off by the staff. It makes the running start that the pros do all the more impressive.
- Once we got going, the track seem to come at us so fast that it was impossible to have any sense of what was coming ahead -- i.e. of anticipating the curves and so on. There was a great sense of speed, but no sense at all of where the sled was going.
- The turns were really jarring. They felt less like rounding a curve and more like getting slammed from one side.

It was not one of those things where, when you finish, you think "Wow, I want to do that again right now!" And that surprised me.

Yeah that's exactly why I don't go on roller coasters George. There are some quick drop rides now where people pass out for a brief second because the G force is so intense. Um - no thanks.....

How was your time? Olympic quality?

(02-26-2018 06:37 AM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  Yeah that's exactly why I don't go on roller coasters George. There are some quick drop rides now where people pass out for a brief second because the G force is so intense. Um - no thanks.....

How was your time? Olympic quality?

If you don't like roller coasters, you'd HATE the bobsled; it was far more jarring than any roller coaster I've been on.

But unlike a roller coaster, there was never that mid-air pit-in-the-stomach feeling that happens just before a big drop. The sensations were of forward speed and side-to-side banging around, but not really of vertical falling.

I forget the time, and I vaguely recall that we did not use the full length of the course -- I think the tourist start is below the pro start line, or something.
But I do recall the speed: 70 mph!

McGuffie is only a rookie. This team could be good with more experience if they stick together.