Two, Men

The local favourites were Hubert and Curtis Stevens, two brothers from Lake Placid. They had won the North American and AAU championships at the same track in 1931. Much competition was expected from the reigning World Champions, Germany’s Hanns Kilian and Sebastian Huber. However, the first heat went to the Swiss bob, which gained nearly six seconds in a single run. With much of the snow on the track gone, the second run was much faster, and the Stevens brothers broke the track record to trail by 3 seconds after the first day.

Overnight warming caused the track to become even faster, and the Swiss leaders broke their record once more in the third run. However, the home team, cheered on by 10,000, topped that, being nearly 4 seconds faster. The difference with just one run left was now 0.45 seconds. The Americans went first in the last descent, improving on their previous record once more and lowering it by two full seconds. Capadrutt and Geier went all out, recorded their best time of the competition, but were two seconds slower than the Stevens brothers. Behind them, the second U.S. bob, steered by 1928 skeleton silver medallist Jack Heaton placed third.

The fourth placed Romanian outfit consisted of two aviators of the Romanian army. They went on to win the 1933 World Championships, and placed third in 1934. Their partnership ended that year, as air force captain Hubert crashed in front of 10,000 spectators at an airshow in Braşov, and was killed. Bob-pilot Papană went on to fly in the gliding demonstrations at the 1936 Olympics. He committed suicide in 1946.