--- title: Two-Man Bobsled Ends in Gold Medal Tie for Germany, Canada description: Two-man bobsled teams from Germany and Canada tied for gold medals at their 2018 Winter Olympics race, a surprising twist in a timed sport. canonical: https://time.com/5165994/two-man-bobsled-germany-canada-gold-medal-tie/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-02-20T02:52:25.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-12T08:59:18.562Z og:title: Germany and Canada Both Just Won Gold in a Rare Bobsled Tie og:description: The internet can't believe they got the exact same time in two-man bobsled og:url: https://time.com/5165994/two-man-bobsled-germany-canada-gold-medal-tie/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltee9219988bd54ad9/69892837cf40a8935dc4b658/germany-canada-bobsled.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5331 og:image:height: 2999 og:image:alt: Bobsleigh - Winter Olympics Day 10 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Germany and Canada Both Just Won Gold in a Rare Bobsled Tie twitter:description: The internet can't believe they got the exact same time in two-man bobsled twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltee9219988bd54ad9/69892837cf40a8935dc4b658/germany-canada-bobsled.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Germany and Canada Just Tied for Olympic Gold in a Rare Finish for Two-Man Bobsled > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=7ba57639-6b24-4615-bc45-90c3cca41200&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Meet The Nigerian Bobsled Team Making History at the 2018 Olympics [Watch (HLS stream): Meet The Nigerian Bobsled Team Making History at the 2018 Olympics](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/E2cYJx3U.m3u8) (3:59)  _Published 2018-01-16. The Nigerian Women's Bobsled team will be the first bobsled team, male or female, from the continent of Africa to compete at the Winter Olympics._  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Feb 20, 2018 2:52 AM UTC The Nigerian Women's Bobsled team will be the first bobsled team, male or female, from the continent of Africa to compete at the Winter Olympics.  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Feb 20, 2018 2:52 AM UTC In an unusual twist, both the German and Canadian two-man [bobsled](http://time.com/5104583/watch-the-nigerian-bobsled-teams-olympic-journey/) teams won gold medals at the PyeongChang [2018 Winter Olympics](http://time.com/5163230/2018-winter-olympic-medal-tracker/) after finishing with [exactly the same times](http://www.nbcolympics.com/news/canada-and-germany-tie-thrilling-2-man-bobsled), down to the hundredth of a second. The team of Francesco Friedrich and Thorsten Margis of Germany were apparently an absolutely perfect match for the duo of Justin Kripps and Alexander Kopacz of Canada in their event at the Olympic Sliding Center on Monday. They were followed by Latvian bobsledders Oskars Melbardis and Janis Strenga, who took bronze.  Justin Kripps and Alexander Kopacz of Canada celebrate as they win joint gold during the Men's 2-Man Bobsleigh on day 10 of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games at Olympic Sliding Centre on February 19, 2018 in Pyeongchang-gun, South Korea. Alexander Hassenstein—Getty Images With the top five teams separated by just 0.13 seconds on the fourth and final run — the bobsled medals are awarded based on cumulative time over four slides down the icy chute — it was going to be a close finish regardless. But the ultimate shocker was that both the Germans and Canadians ended up with that identical time. The last time two teams tied for Olympic gold in the two-man bobsled event was back in 1998, between the Canadians (again) and the Italians. (To combat this problem, [luge has already converted](http://time.com/5162408/winter-olympics-luge-vs-skeleton-vs-bobsled-explained/) to scoring speed to the thousandths of a second.)  Francesco Friedrich and Thorsten Margis of Germany reacts in the finish area following their final run during the Men's 2-Man Bobsleigh on day 10 of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games at Olympic Sliding Centre on February 19, 2018 in Pyeongchang-gun, South Korea. Lars Baron—Getty Images Naturally, the internet couldn’t help but be surprised with the result. In particular, people love that the Germans were so thrilled with the tie that they were the first to run over and congratulate their Canadian fellow medalists, proving that good sportsmanship at the Olympics is alive and well. > [](https://twitter.com/NBCOlympics/status/965767728865906695) > [](https://twitter.com/bre%5F%5Fzzy/status/965768379540889602) > [](https://twitter.com/Natasha%5FHot1047/status/965767716027142146) > [](https://twitter.com/jkuzmick/status/965767383410495489) > [](https://twitter.com/TimMokry/status/965773627923681280) > [](https://twitter.com/TylerSmall9/status/965772203932442624) > [](https://twitter.com/dianamcqueen/status/965762975859691520) ## Transcript [ BLANK_AUDIO ] [ MUSIC ] You don't even have to be in Nigeria to be confused as to why three Nigerians, who live in Texas, are competing in the sport of bobsled > We had a barbecue lunch. She told me that she wanted to create a bobsled team. I guess I'm a sporadic thinker or I just make rash decisions, I don't know. But I was like, " Sure ", and then afterwards, I was like I need to call somebody else, I get like a second, third or fourth opinion. Once she explained that this is for a continent I was like yeah, it would be absurd not to do it. And I was like My god I think [ UNKNOWN ] just created a team Our team dynamic is pretty unique Like work definitely, like the fun loving group of women that it's very enjoyable being around us Well at the same time, we definitely know how to get to work. I wouldn't have to think about the idea of doing it all over again with anyone else. The dynamic works. Cool Running! Cool Running's reference is just something we get all the time every single day. I mean if I had a dollar For every time I got that I would not mean to fundraise ever again, but it's honorable it's beautiful, because here we are thirty years later you know from when these men took this little faith and just something so special and here others are going to compare it to something of such high stature like that's just it's an honor it. [ NOISE ] [ MUSIC ] It's difficult being the only person who knows anything about the sport for an entire continent. The learning curve was huge. The first thing I think we learned [ UNKNOWN ] to hit this [ UNKNOWN ] on the may flower which is just this wooden tool that we used to help us [ UNKNOWN ] get the technique [ UNKNOWN ] hitting the slide. We spent a lot of time in the weight room and on the tractors working on speed and strength, getting stronger and getting faster We're used to [ UNKNOWN ] From track and field where we just get on the track and do our thing for 30 seconds max. But what Bob said, you're on the track almost like a whole entire work day. I didn't think that I, thought the sport would be so demanding in terms of physically having to move this sled up, you know all of the things that happen prior to actually getting into the sled and Racing. [ NOISE ] Here we go. You're doing stuff in cold weather, you're freezing, But eventually, it got easier and easier, things just kinda started to add up and click. And that's kind of how it is not when it's just like hey, we've only been doing this for a year and we're getting pretty good at it. [ UNKNOWN ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ] I was raised a Nigerian in the United States. Being able to represent Nigeria has just been honorable, to say the least. How many people can say that they're going to the Olympics. One and two, putting a whole continent on their back and making this happen. Historically, you probably haven't seen a team from Africa for a very realistic reasons. No one is gonna associate a Sub- Saharan climate with ice or snow. If they can see now and visualize the fact that there are ways to do these things [ MUSIC ] My hope is that the floodgates will open and people will take to the sport and the sport will continue to grow. Amen. Although this is for Nigeria on the actual ballot, this is everything we represent. We represent a community of women Strong women. We represent United States, we represent Houston, we represent Chicago, Dallas, Minnesota, all the places where we have dedicated our lives to, or have been any way shape of forum, a part of our growth. This is for them, this is for you, this is for everyone. 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