Two, Men

In theory the 1994 Olympic should have been a showdown between crews from the sport’s traditional heartland of Switzerland, Austria, Germany and Italy and a newly re-emerging threat from three English-speaking nations in the shape of the USA, Canada and Great Britain. Pilots Christophe Langen and Wolfgang Hoppe of Germany had been joined on the podium at the1 993 World Championship by 1992 Olympic champion Gustav Weder of Switzerland but the Hoppe would compete at Lillehammer only in the four-man event and Langen would not make the team at a ll. This left Weder as one of the favourites alongside Italian, German, Canadian and American crews.

As the event progressed it became apparent that the gold medal would be decided between the Swiss crews piloted by Weder and Reto Götschi. Gotschi held a small advantage of just 0.03 of a second over Weder when he left the start hut at the beginning of the fourth run and held his advantage for most of the course. At the final intermediate timing some 200 m from the finish the splits showed the two crews as equal down to the exact 100th but Götschi dropped a further 0.02 on his way to the finish. It was a bitter sweet ending for the Acklin family as Donat Acklin served as Gustav Weder’s brakeman whilst his brother Guido served the same role for Reto Götschi. Italy I finished clear of the top German sled for the bronze medal shutting Germany out of the medals for the first time in thirty years.