59 Days Until The Winter Olympics: Del Duca Leads USA Men’s Bobsled Push

The 2025-2026 BMW IBSF Bobsled World Cup serves as the big qualifying stage for the Men’s Teams at the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics. If recent results are anything to go by, the United States Men’s Bobsled team has some serious work to do if they want to be in the conversation for a medal.

For Team USA, consistency is the name of the game right now. They need to rack up ranking points to lock in their Olympic spots. With experienced pilots like Frank Del Duca and Kristopher Horn at the helm, the team is determined to prove they are real contenders in the 2-man event. The schedule ahead isn’t easy, featuring technical tracks in Lillehammer, Sigulda, and St. Moritz. Every single race is going to matter in their push for qualification.

2-Man Men’s Bobsled Qualifiers

The 2-man event has turned into a major battleground, and right now, Germany’s Johannes Lochner is the guy to beat. He grabbed early wins in Cortina d’Ampezzo and Innsbruck, cementing his status as the favorite. In Cortina, Lochner and his brakeman Georg Fleischhauer put down an impressive time of 1:51.15, backing it up with another win in Innsbruck at 1:45.08. His biggest rival, Francesco Friedrich, is right on his heels, though, finishing just behind him in Cortina with a 1:51.49.

For the Americans, these qualifiers are crunch time. Del Duca and Boone Niederhofer showed a flash of brilliance with a fourth-place finish tie in Innsbruck, which proves they have the speed to challenge for the podium. The strategy for the U.S. is simple: stay consistent, grab points, and secure those Olympic spots.

4-Man Men’s Bobsled Qualifiers

Things get even more intense in the 4-man bobsled, where the rivalry between Friedrich and Lochner is the main storyline. Lochner took the win in Cortina (1:49.73), but Friedrich punched back in Innsbruck, taking gold with a time of 1:43.68. It’s a back-and-forth tug-of-war where milliseconds are the difference between winning and losing.

Outside of the German drama, Team USA is trying to build depth in their 4-man squads. Pilots like Del Duca and Horn are fighting for competitive finishes to boost the nation’s ranking. We saw glimpses of potential in Innsbruck, but the real test will be maintaining that form on tough tracks like St. Moritz and Altenberg. The goal is to qualify the maximum number of sleds for 2026, but to do that, they’ll need to hold their own against heavy hitters like South Korea, Great Britain, and Switzerland.

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2025-2026 BMW IBSF Bobsleigh World Cup Summary 

The 2025-2026 BMW IBSF Bobsleigh World Cup serves as the primary qualification series for the Milan Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games, featuring events in Two-Man, Four-Man, bobsleigh disciplines.  

Past Qualifying Events

• November 22–23, 2025: Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy – First World Cup event of the season.
• November 29–30, 2025: Innsbruck, Austria.

Upcoming Qualifying Events

• December 13–14, 2025: Lillehammer, Norway.
• December 20–21, 2025: Sigulda, Latvia.
• January 3–4, 2026: Winterberg, Germany.
• January 10–11, 2026: St. Moritz, Switzerland – Also serves as the European Championships.
• January 17–18, 2026: Altenberg, Germany – Final World Cup event before Olympic team selections.

The Olympic qualification window closes on January 18, 2026, with the Winter Games scheduled for February 2026 in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.

Bobsleigh vs. Bobsled 

Bobsleigh is the official international term.

• It is used by the sport’s governing body, the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (IBSF).
• It is the official name used at the Winter Olympic Games.
• It is generally favored in British English and globally in official sports media.

Bobsled is the term most commonly used in North America (U.S. and Canada) for both the sport and the sled itself.

• It is often used interchangeably with bobsleigh in casual conversation and North American news coverage.