Four, Men
| Date | 13 – 14 February 1976 | |
|---|---|---|
| Status | Olympic | |
| Location | Kunsteis-Bob- und Rodelbahn, Igls | |
| Participants | 85 from 12 countries | |
| Format | Four runs, total time determined placement. | |
| Details | Curves: 14 Length: 1220 m Start Altitude: 1133 m Vertical Drop: 97 m | |
Theoretically the Olympic title should been contested between West Germany, Switzerland and Austria as those countries had dominated the FIBT World Championships over the preceding three years. The problem with that theory was the emergence, in less than an Olympic cycle, of a strong East German bobsleigh programme. Formed with a backbone of converted track and field athletes the GDR had threatened to break through to the podium positions over the previous seasons and in Innsbruck this was achieved in spectacular fashion. The reigning world champion Erich Schärer, driving Switzerland II, reined in the gap on the second day of competition but Manfred Nehmer’s GDR I bob had built up too much of an advantage to be overhauled in the contest for gold. Nehmer began only the second man to secure victory in both events at the same Games and the first to do so at his début Olympics.
| Pos | Competitors | NOC | Time | Run #1 | Run #2 | Run #3 | Run #4 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | East Germany 1 |  GDR | 3:40.43 | 54.43 (1) | 54.64 (1) | 55.51 (2) | 55.85 (2) | Gold | |||||
| Meinhard Nehmer • Jochen Babock • Bernhard Germeshausen • Bernhard Lehmann | |||||||||||||
| 2 | Switzerland 2 |  SUI | 3:40.89 | 54.96 (5) | 54.81 (2) | 55.28 (1) | 55.84 (1) | Silver | |||||
| Erich Schärer • Ueli Bächli • Ruedi Marti • Sepp Benz | |||||||||||||
| 3 | West Germany 1 |  FRG | 3:41.37 | 54.82 (3) | 54.87 (3) | 55.53 (3) | 56.15 (3) | Bronze | |||||
| Wolfgang Zimmerer • Peter Utzschneider • Bodo Bittner • Manfred Schumann | |||||||||||||
| 4 | East Germany 2 | GDR | 3:42.44 | 55.11 (6) | 55.12 (5) | 55.63 (4) | 56.58 (4) | ||||||
| Horst Schönau • Horst Bernhard • Harald Seifert • Raimund Bethge | |||||||||||||
| 5 | West Germany 2 | FRG | 3:42.47 | 54.92 (4) | 54.98 (4) | 55.70 (5) | 56.87 (8) | ||||||
| Georg Heibl • Hans Morant • Siegfried Radandt • Fritz Ohlwärter | |||||||||||||
| 6 | Austria 2 |  AUT | 3:43.21 | 54.66 (2) | 55.80 (=10) | 56.10 (7) | 56.65 (6) | ||||||
| Werner Delle Karth • Andreas Schwab • Heinz Krenn • Otto Breg • Franz Köfel | |||||||||||||
| 7 | Austria 1 | AUT | 3:43.79 | 55.51 (8) | 55.62 (8) | 56.05 (6) | 56.61 (5) | ||||||
| Fritz Sperling • Kurt Oberhöller • Gerd Zaunschirm • Dieter Gehmacher | |||||||||||||
| 8 | Romania 1 |  ROU | 3:43.91 | 55.54 (9) | 55.51 (7) | 56.18 (8) | 56.68 (7) | ||||||
| Dragoș Panaitescu-Rapan • Paul Neagu • Costel Ionescu • Gheorghe Lixandru | |||||||||||||
| 9 | Switzerland 1 | SUI | 3:44.04 | 55.29 (7) | 55.33 (6) | 56.37 (9) | 57.05 (9) | ||||||
| Fritz Lüdi • Thomas Hagen • Rudolf Schmid • Karl Häseli | |||||||||||||
| 10 | France |  FRA | 3:44.90 | 55.75 (=11) | 55.66 (9) | 56.43 (10) | 57.06 (10) | ||||||
| Gérard Christaud-Pipola • Alain Roy • André Belle • Serge Hissung | |||||||||||||
| 11 | Italy 2 |  ITA | 3:45.80 | 55.75 (=11) | 55.80 (=10) | 57.08 (16) | 57.17 (11) | ||||||
| Nevio De Zordo • Ezio Fiori • Roberto Porzia • Lino Benoni | |||||||||||||
| 12 | Italy 1 | ITA | 3:45.87 | 55.59 (10) | 55.92 (12) | 56.94 (14) | 57.42 (12) | ||||||
| Giorgio Alverà • Piero Vegnuti • Adriano Bee • Francesco Butteri | |||||||||||||
| 13 | Great Britain 1 |  GBR | 3:46.39 | 56.02 (14) | 56.07 (13) | 56.72 (11) | 57.58 (14) | ||||||
| Jackie Price • Colin Campbell • Bill Sweet • Gomer Lloyd | |||||||||||||
| 14 | Romania 2 | ROU | 3:46.70 | 56.09 (=15) | 56.23 (15) | 56.81 (12) | 57.57 (13) | ||||||
| Ion Panțuru • Constantin Romaniuc • Alexe Gheorghe Tănăsescu • Mihai Nicolau | |||||||||||||
| 15 | United States 1 |  USA | 3:46.72 | 56.09 (=15) | 56.08 (14) | 56.96 (15) | 57.59 (15) | ||||||
| Jimmy Morgan • Peter Brennan • John Proctor • Tom Becker | |||||||||||||
| 16 | Sweden |  SWE | 3:47.12 | 56.12 (17) | 56.48 (16) | 56.87 (13) | 57.65 (16) | ||||||
| Carl-Erik Eriksson • Jan Johansson • Leif Johansson • Kenth Rönn | |||||||||||||
| 17 | Canada 1 |  CAN | 3:48.02 | 55.97 (13) | 56.67 (17) | 57.49 (17) | 57.89 (17) | ||||||
| Colin Nelson • Thomas Stehr • David Veale • Jim Lavalley | |||||||||||||
| 18 | Japan |  JPN | 3:49.41 | 56.47 (18) | 56.97 (21) | 57.78 (19) | 58.19 (19) | ||||||
| Susumu Esashika • Kazumi Abe • Rikio Sato • Kimihiro Shinada | |||||||||||||
| 19 | United States 2 | USA | 3:49.71 | 56.61 (19) | 56.86 (18) | 57.89 (21) | 58.35 (20) | ||||||
| William Hollrock, III • Earl Frisbie • Frederick Fritsch • Phil Duprey | |||||||||||||
| 20 | Great Britain 2 | GBR | 3:49.85 | 57.21 (20) | 56.88 (20) | 57.75 (18) | 58.01 (18) | ||||||
| Mark Agar • Anthony Norton • Graham Sweet • Sir Andrew Ogilvy-Wedderburn | |||||||||||||
| 21 | Canada 2 | CAN | 3:50.86 | 57.43 (21) | 56.87 (19) | 57.87 (20) | 58.69 (21) | ||||||
| Christopher Frank • William Dunn • Christopher Martin • Brian Vachon | |||||||||||||