| Date | 14 – 15 February 1998 | |
|---|---|---|
| Status | Olympic | |
| Location | The Spiral, Asakawa, Nagano | |
| Participants | 76 from 24 countries | |
| Format | Four runs, total time determined placement. | |
| Details | Curves: 15 Length: 1360 m Start Altitude: 1028 m Vertical Drop: 113 m | |
Christoph Langen of Germany had, with various partners, won three successive world titles between 1993 and 1996 but had missed a medal in 1997 in St. Moritz. The reigning world champions were the Swiss team of Reto Götschi and Guido Acklin but there was no shortage of possible title challengers. Canadian Pierre Leuders and Günther Huber of Italy had impressed over the World Cup season and both American and Latvian crews had high hopes.
The pattern for the competition was set in the first run with Italy and Canada jostling for the gold medal position. This continued for the next two runs and at the start of the final run Canada were just three hundredths of a second behind their Italian rivals. Pierre Leuders’ final run was slightly faster than Günther Huber’s and when the clock stopped at the finish line he had made up exactly that deficit and no more. This was not the first time that two crews had dead-heated for first place in Olympic competition but the tie-breaker rule which had decided the winners of the 1968 two man event had been abandoned by 1998 and the two crews shared the gold medal.
| Pos | Start Order | Pair | NOC | Time | Run #1 | Run #2 | Run #3 | Run #4 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| =1 | 3 | Günther Huber / Antonio Tartaglia |  ITA | 3:37.24 | 54.51 (1) | 54.29 (2) | 54.17 (3) | 54.27 (2) | Gold | ||
| =1 | 5 | Pierre Lueders / Dave MacEachern |  CAN | 3:37.24 | 54.56 (2) | 54.28 (1) | 54.16 (2) | 54.24 (1) | Gold | ||
| 3 | 8 | Christoph Langen / Markus Zimmermann |  GER | 3:37.89 | 54.82 (7) | 54.62 (6) | 54.11 (1) | 54.34 (3) | Bronze | ||
| 4 | 15 | Christian Reich / Cédric Grand |  SUI | 3:38.15 | 54.73 (4) | 54.56 (4) | 54.32 (5) | 54.54 (=7) | |||
| 5 | 9 | Sandis Prūsis / Jānis Elsiņš |  LAT | 3:38.24 | 54.91 (=10) | 54.52 (3) | 54.29 (4) | 54.52 (6) | |||
| 6 | 7 | Reto Götschi / Guido Acklin | SUI | 3:38.27 | 54.71 (3) | 54.77 (12) | 54.44 (7) | 54.35 (4) | |||
| 7 | 6 | Jim Herberich / Bob Olesen |  USA | 3:38.53 | 54.91 (=10) | 54.70 (9) | 54.46 (=8) | 54.46 (5) | |||
| 8 | 14 | Pavel Puškár / Jan Kobián |  CZE | 3:38.59 | 54.99 (12) | 54.60 (5) | 54.46 (=8) | 54.54 (=7) | |||
| 9 | 1 | Bruno Mingeon / Emmanuel Hostache |  FRA | 3:38.62 | 54.80 (6) | 54.65 (7) | 54.55 (10) | 54.62 (10) | |||
| 10 | 10 | Brian Shimer / Garrett Hines | USA | 3:38.75 | 54.88 (9) | 54.79 (=13) | 54.42 (6) | 54.66 (11) | |||
| 11 | 2 | Dirk Wiese / Marco Jakobs | GER | 3:38.88 | 54.83 (8) | 54.66 (8) | 54.63 (11) | 54.76 (13) | |||
| 12 | 4 | Chris Lori / Jack Pyc | CAN | 3:38.98 | 54.76 (5) | 54.72 (10) | 54.71 (12) | 54.79 (14) | |||
| 13 | 20 | Éric Alard / Éric Le Chanony | FRA | 3:39.31 | 55.25 (15) | 54.75 (11) | 54.73 (13) | 54.58 (9) | |||
| 14 | 13 | Fabrizio Tosini / Enrico Costa | ITA | 3:39.61 | 55.07 (13) | 54.79 (=13) | 54.80 (14) | 54.95 (15) | |||
| 15 | 18 | Sean Olsson / Lenny Paul |  GBR | 3:39.94 | 55.24 (14) | 55.12 (18) | 54.85 (16) | 54.73 (12) | |||
| 16 | 17 | Pavel Shcheglovsky / Konstantin Dyomin |  RUS | 3:40.31 | 55.41 (19) | 55.09 (15) | 54.84 (15) | 54.97 (17) | |||
| 17 | 16 | Naomi Takewaki / Hiroaki Ohishi |  JPN | 3:40.71 | 55.31 (17) | 55.24 (20) | 55.20 (20) | 54.96 (16) | |||
| 18 | 19 | Rodžers Lodziņš / Māris Rozentāls | LAT | 3:40.75 | 55.34 (18) | 55.25 (21) | 55.06 (17) | 55.10 (20) | |||
| 19 | 21 | Hiroshi Suzuki / Masanori Inoue | JPN | 3:40.80 | 55.47 (=20) | 55.10 (16) | 55.19 (19) | 55.04 (19) | |||
| 20 | 26 | Lee Johnston / Eric Sekwalor | GBR | 3:40.88 | 55.51 (22) | 55.19 (19) | 55.16 (18) | 55.02 (18) | |||
| 21 | 27 | Yevgeny Popov / Oleg Petrov | RUS | 3:41.46 | 55.53 (23) | 55.37 (23) | 55.25 (21) | 55.31 (=21) | |||
| 22 | 25 | Jason Giobbi / Adam Barclay |  AUS | 3:41.60 | 55.56 (24) | 55.47 (24) | 55.26 (22) | 55.31 (=21) | |||
| 23 | 32 | Yuriy Panchuk / Oleh Polyvach |  UKR | 3:41.82 | 55.47 (=20) | 55.36 (22) | 55.52 (23) | 55.47 (23) | |||
| 24 | 28 | Gilbert Bessi / Jean-François Calmes |  MON | 3:43.54 | 55.89 (25) | 55.86 (=25) | 55.92 (25) | 55.87 (=25) | |||
| 25 | 24 | Paul Neagu / Gabriel Tătaru |  ROU | 3:43.66 | 56.38 (29) | 56.10 (28) | 55.54 (24) | 55.64 (24) | |||
| 26 | 36 | Florian Enache / Mihai Dumitrașcu | ROU | 3:43.73 | 56.03 (26) | 55.86 (=25) | 55.97 (26) | 55.87 (=25) | |||
| 27 | 30 | Jeff Pamplin / Terry McHugh |  IRL | 3:44.32 | 56.32 (28) | 56.05 (27) | 55.99 (27) | 55.96 (27) | |||
| 28 | 23 | Alan Henderson / Angus Ross |  NZL | 3:44.66 | 56.29 (27) | 56.28 (29) | 56.12 (28) | 55.97 (28) | |||
| 29 | 29 | Devon Harris / Michael Morgan |  JAM | 3:45.74 | 56.56 (30) | 56.52 (30) | 56.36 (30) | 56.30 (29) | |||
| 30 | 22 | Greg Sebald / John-Andrew Kampanis |  GRE | 3:46.57 | 56.62 (31) | 57.13 (36) | 56.45 (31) | 56.37 (31) | |||
| 31 | 39 | Zoran Sokolović / Ognjen Sokolović |  BIH | 3:46.61 | 57.36 (38) | 56.62 (31) | 56.32 (29) | 56.31 (30) | |||
| 32 | 31 | Gregory Sun / Curtis Harry |  TTO | 3:46.65 | 56.74 (32) | 56.78 (32) | 56.73 (35) | 56.40 (32) | |||
| 33 | 34 | Zachary Zoller / Jeff Kromenhoek |  ISV | 3:47.20 | 56.77 (33) | 56.90 (34) | 56.71 (=33) | 56.82 (34) | |||
| 34 | 38 | Sun Kuang-Ming / Cheng Jin-Shan |  TPE | 3:47.34 | 56.84 (34) | 56.86 (33) | 56.71 (=33) | 56.93 (35) | |||
| 35 | 37 | Peter Donohoe / Simon Linscheid | IRL | 3:47.45 | 57.03 (35) | 57.26 (37) | 56.57 (32) | 56.59 (33) | |||
| 36 | 35 | Keith Sudziarski / Todd Schultz | ISV | 3:48.31 | 57.06 (36) | 57.10 (35) | 56.96 (36) | 57.19 (36) | |||
| 33 | John Amabile, Jr. / Joe Keosseian |  PUR | – | 57.35 (37) | [57.69] ( | – | – | 1 | |||
| 11 | Jiří Džmura / Pavel Polomský | CZE | – | 55.30 (16) | 55.11 (17) | – ( | – | ||||
| 12 | Hubert Schösser / Georg Kuttner |  AUT | – | – ( | – | – | – |
