Patrick Baumgartner and his teammates narrowly missed out on a medal. © APA/afp / FRANCK FIFE

Baumgartner's medal dream bursts on the last day

On the last day of the Olympic Games, Patrick Baumgartner had to bury his dream of a medal in the four-man bobsleigh.

February 22, 2026

From: never

At the halfway point, Baumgartner was in fifth place. The Puster Valley native had two more runs in the Cortina d'Ampezzo ice track to launch an attack on third place, which was only 0,19 seconds away. However, the comeback never materialized: Baumgartner finished the Olympic four-man bobsleigh competition on Sunday in fifth place (+1,32 seconds).

Despite missing out on a medal, it was a strong performance from the 31-year-old from Pfalzen, along with his teammates Lorenzo Bilotti, Eric Fantazzini, and Robert Mircea. In the third run, he gained a hundredth of a second to move into third place and reached his top speed of the weekend in the fourth sector at 136,40 km/h. However, mistakes crept in during the final run, and Baumgartner only managed the sixth-fastest time.

Swiss player prevents German treble

At the top, after the first three runs, everything pointed to a German sweep of the podium – but the Swiss quartet of pilot Michael Vogt and his pushers Andreas Haas, Amadou David Ndiaye, and Mario Aeberhard had other ideas. The Swiss team overtook Germany's Adam Ammour, making up a deficit of 0,09 seconds in the battle for bronze and celebrating winning a medal (+1,07).

Johannes Lochner is a double Olympic champion. © APA/afp / FRANCK FIFE

The showdown for gold, however, took place between Johannes Lochner and Francesco Friedrich. With a dominant performance, Lochner crowned himself Olympic champion in the four-man bobsleigh after his triumph in the two-man event, while Friedrich completed the German one-two finish (+0,57).