BEAR HOLLOW — What might have been.
That was the thought in the minds of American fans and competitors at the World Cup four-man bobsled races here Sunday.
While German, Swiss and French bobsleds took the top three spots, the day's stunner was the heartbreaking stumble that may have cost the Americans a medal.
During the second and last heat, the bobsled driven by Todd Hays of Heber City took off in the fastest push of the day, 4.77 seconds for the first 50 meters. But as the four were pounding along the track, the No. 2 man — Paul Jovanovic of Toms River, N.J. — lost his balance and started to fall.
If he had missed the sled or fallen, the team would have been disqualified. So the powerful Randy Jones of Atlanta, running immediately behind him, grabbed Jovanovic and shoved him in. Jovanovic tumbled in, head-forward for a moment, as the other pushers were jumping in, and the bobsled whipped down the track.
From that fastest start, the team ended with a disappointing run of 86.3 seconds, 12th in the heat. Hays and crew, which included brakeman Garrett Hines of Atlanta, finished in seventh place, 0.29 of a second off the pace. It was the best showing among three American sleds.
"I had to kind of grab him and help him get his balance and get in," explained Jones, a resident of Atlanta.
How could the sled have taken off with the best start time in the race and still end so badly?
"It's just all in the load," Jones said. "I mean, we're standing up on Curve 1, and that's just killing all that velocity that we had coming out of the start. So there was nothing we could do about it."
Hays' sled dragged sadly. "That hurts," he said. "We were in medal position. This was a medal trip. We had great equipment. The start was there and I thought the drive was there the last trip. We just made one mistake — and one mistake is one too many in this sport."
Once a sled loses velocity at the top of the track, he said, it's all over.
"I didn't realize how big a mistake because obviously I didn't see them," he said of his sledmates who were riding behind him. "I could feel them all squirming around and I was just hoping that maybe they were just not sitting right."
The 1,850 spectators got a great show from the first run. At that time, the Swiss 2 sled piloted by Christian Reich set a new track record of 46.61, hitting a speed of 88.4 miles per hour. But soon afterward the German 1 sled, with driver Andre Lange, broke that record at 46.57 seconds, reaching 88.6 mph.
This was the sixth of seven World Cup races. The last World Cup bobsled races this season are scheduled for March 10 and 11 in Lake Placid, N.Y.
Final standings for the first three places were:
Gold medal: Lange, Germany 1, with sledmates Lars Behrendt, Rene Hoppe and Carsten Embach, with a combined time in two runs of 1:33.63.
Silver: Swiss 2, driven by Reich with Steve Anderhub, Urs Aeberhard and Domenic Keller. Time, 1:33.74. Reich and brakeman Steve Anderhub tied for the gold in Saturday's two-man bobsled competition.
Bronze: two sleds tied at 1:33.75. They were Germany 2, driver Matthias Benesch with Kevin Kuske, Udo Lehmann and Alexander Szelig; and France 1, Bruno Mingeon piloting with Eric LeChanony, Christophe Fouquet and Max Robert.
Christoph Langen, the many-medaled driver of Germany 3, overcame severe hamstring injuries to compete. His sled — with Enrico Khn, Marco Jakobs and Alexander Metzger — finished in fifth place at 1:33.77.
The most famous of the drivers Sunday was Monaco's Prince Albert. His Monaco 1 finished 28th out of 29 entries, at 1:36.54, nearly three seconds off the lead.
Mike Dionne of Alpharetta, Ga., piloted USA 2 to a 10th-place finish at a two-run time of 1:34.13. Dionne's crew included Steve Holcomb of Park City, Doug Sharp of Jeffersonville, Ind., and John Kasper of Thornton, Iowa.
And long-time Olympian Brian Shimer of Naples, Fla., drove USA 3 to 19th at 1:34.89. Shimer, who has been battling injuries this season, was joined by Paul Wise of Geneva, Ill.; Mike Kohn of Chantilly, Va.; and Earl Shepherd of Pittsburgh.
Lange, one of the youngest competitors, said after the race that "the track was in excellent shape. That helped. The ice was in very good shape. I couldn't have asked for a better competition."
All the winning drivers spoke through translators.
"The track is in perfect condition, that the workers did their best" were Reich's comments through a translator. "He's certainly convinced that this track is worthy of the Olympics."
Benesch said he was "a little bit lucky" that Langen was injured, allowing his crew a better chance.
Mingeon noted that he has had a rough season, finishing in fourth, fifth, sixth and eighth in other races. "He's very happy that he was able to medal," and that gives him confidence for the future.
Hays also is thinking ahead to the Salt Lake 2002 Winter Olympics. He said he is glad the mistake happened this year. "It gives us something to think about for another year," he said.
"Hopefully, it'll make the guys a little hungrier" for success in the Winter Games.
Then the Utahn found the ultimate silver lining.
"We don't scare the Europeans too bad, and hopefully they'll be content with their victory and won't train as hard."
E-MAIL: bau@desnews.com