"Otherwise our sport is on the brink": Bobsleigh superstar Francesco Friedrich is worried

Created: 12/14/2022, 7:35 am

By: Hanna Raif

Record world champion and twice double Olympic champion.

Francesco Friedrich has achieved everything in bobsleigh.

But no reason to think about quitting.

Munich – There isn't much that Francesco Friedrich hasn't managed to do – but the Olympic bobsleigh champion has a big mission at the weekend in Lake Placid.

For the first time he wants to win in a foursome on the 1980 Olympic track.

The 32-year-old speaks in advance in an interview.

Mr. Friedrich, the American Kristopher Horn has secured the world championship title in the push.

You're actually the best, aren't you?

Friedrich:

You said that now

.

But seriously: We deliberately decided against this start-up World Cup because the risk is far too great for us.

On a push-off track that's on ice, that's pretty fast out at the bottom, with no rope tightened to mark a limit on how far you can run.

We didn't want that.

Especially since the World Cup in St. Moritz is already at the end of January and not at the end of February as usual.

You had a two-week break between the World Cups in Park City and Lake Placid.

How did you pass the time?

Friedrich:

After twelve years overseas, we made it to New York for the first time.

You are always so close – but yet so far away.

We all enjoyed it, but I have to say that this week was unnecessary for us athletes.

From this weekend you can go bobsledding again.

Her luge counterpart, Felix Loch, has just celebrated his 50th World Cup victory.

Do you always have your current status in mind?

Friedrich:

In the meantime yes, I look at it consciously.

We are currently at 70. And 100 remains the goal.

I also calculated that exactly.

Let's take part in the extrapolation!

Friedrich:

Before the season it should have been 8.5 wins per winter.

Now, after two World Cup weekends, I'm at four - and there are still six World Cups, i.e. twelve individual victories, up for grabs.

That should be doable...

“I can still get better”: Francesco Friedrich, 70-time World Cup winner.

He also won two gold medals in 2018 and 2022.

© Sebastian Kahnert/dpa

also read

"Oh my, the Germans aren't thrilled": Hackl Schorsch is training the competition from now on

READ

Pechstein: Disciplinary proceedings discontinued

READ

Keppler hopes for a quick return after surgery

READ

Vonn: Riesch hurt me a lot

READ

Only fourth place: Edelmann slips up

READ

Fancy a journey of discovery?

My space

Francesco Friedrich is aiming for 100 World Cup victories

Do you consciously set yourself numerical goals – or is that a sport on the side?

Friedrich:

Sometimes like this, sometimes like that.

But I do think to myself: If I'm the first winter athlete to win 100 times, I might be able to draw even more from it after my career.

For me it's really about the opportunities after sport.

You are 32 and have been in the World Cup since 2011.

Do you feel a drop in performance?

Friedrich:

I was always told that between the ages of 25 and 28 you reached the highest level in sport.

I counter: Last year we were a tenth of a second faster than everyone else in the foursome – with three over 30 occupants.

We have means and methods to push that limit.

I'm sure we'll be able to do that over the next three years.

We have no plans to dismantle.

Are you deliberately talking about three years?

Frederick:

Yes.

The corona pandemic in particular brought me to this.

Because I have four Olympic gold medals - and I think that a World Championship would not be appropriate - but my family, my friends, my sponsors were never able to be there.

Now we are planning that a bus will come to St. Moritz for the World Cup.

And then the planning for Cortina starts.

It is not yet certain that the train will be there in time.

Friedrich:

In between it was said that we might be going to Innsbruck.

But now it means that the track has to be built - otherwise our sport is on the brink.

It must be ridden on the track that the host applied for.

If it is not finished, there will be Olympic Games without bobsleigh, luge and skeleton.

I hope it doesn't get rough.

Friedrich: “The transport costs alone have tripled or quintupled”

Johannes Lochner has not yet decided whether he will challenge you.

For this he wants to knock you off the throne this season.

Does he only knock publicly – or also internally?

Friedrich:

Always more, sometimes less.

But we don't give each other much (laughs).

If he says that I should take another close look at the World Cup, he has to prove it first.

Because he trumpets something like that every year - but so far I've always been at the top.

Even in Beijing, and that's where we saw the best Hansi (Lochner/ed.Red.) in years.

What kind of Lochner do we currently see – and what kind of Friedrich?

Friedrich:

It's still difficult to say because not all teams are at the start overseas.

Because you really have to dig deep into your pockets to start here...

How much?

Friedrich:

The transport costs alone have tripled or quintupled.

We won't see what happens this season until we're in Winterberg next year.

This Übesee tour, five weeks - you have to imagine that!

– will cost the team a six-figure sum.

Unfortunately, not everyone can afford that in our sport.

Pro footballers could fund their season quite well...

Friedrich:

But they became footballers because they wanted to play football.

The endurance athletes have become biathletes – and they are doing much better.

I don't look at others with envy.

That's a typical German mentality that I don't like.

If I had become something else, it would have been different - but this is how we make the best of what we enjoy.

We don't whine.

Francesco Friedirch (right) with his two-man colleague Thorsten Margis.

© Jeff Swinger/dpa

Bob could soon become extinct

Were there still moments when you thought: Why am I doing this to myself?

Friedrich:

There was never this one point.

I may have had my doubts at the beginning of my career, but I found it more and more fun to work my way into it.

I see myself as a role model today - also to give sport itself the status it deserves in our population, which unfortunately it no longer has. 

Your kids probably get more exercise than others, right?

Friedrich:

They're always romping around!

It makes me sad when I see how many children spend so much time in front of their cell phones, tablets and televisions.

They should go outside!

That's what I stand for, that's what my medals are faithful companions at every appointment.

I consciously put them in everyone's hands to show: you can do anything if you want to! 

Before the season, you made the grim prophecy that your grandchildren would only know about bobsleigh from the history books.

Frederick:

The worry remains.

And I'm becoming more and more aware that it's about an overall construct.

If fewer children do sport in general, even fewer will reach us.

Bobsleigh is a career changer, you can't go on the track until you are 13 at the earliest.

It has become increasingly difficult in recent years.

There is a lack of networks with other sports to get good people.

Every sport fights for itself, for its squad positions, its funding.

If that doesn't work - and then there are the environmental problems, the energy crisis, Corona, whatever - you have fewer and fewer reasons to freeze the trains.

The TV presence doesn't play into our hands either.

Fewer and fewer people identify with our beautiful sport.

So I've decided to do whatever it takes to keep him alive.

I want to get people on track

Everything hurts more now than it used to

Is the mission realistic?

Frederick:

I hope so.

But the view must go far beyond Germany.

The other nations always point at us, look at our material with envy.

But they forget that the fast sleds are the result of hard work.

I'll take the USA as an example: there are so many colleges here, so many athletes.

If there was more targeted funding here, they would have world-class athletes. 

Is less competition good for your World Cup winning mission?

Friedrich:

But it's not just about me.

Of course it's nice to have victory after victory.

But I consciously help other athletes when I'm asked.

I encourage competition.

Is it the same for you as it is for FC Bayern: you want more competition, but don't want to finish second?

Friedrich:

That is a dichotomy, I agree with you there.

It's nicer when the races are closer, more strenuous, more challenging.

These victories are more fun.

Can you get even better?

Frederick:

Definitely.

In the last two weeks, for example, I have fallen twice – before that, most recently in 2019. By the way, I now have more to do physically than before.

Thoracic spine, neck – everything hurts.

The interview was conducted by Hanna Raif.