Evening star., 1932-02-11
R|DERSPUSHLUCK
TO HANG Up MARKS
Tense Atmosphere Prevails
at 0Iympics-U. S. Team
Wins Doubles.
BY EDWARD J. NEIL,
Associated Press Sports Writer.

7 AXE PLACID, N. Y, February
11.-There was tension in
II the air today and a hint OF
foreboding, a premonition
of disaster, as the Winter Olympics
entered the final stage, where the
danger of death or grave injury
on the jagged sides of Mount
Van Hoevenberg tranScended the
erve-Wracking eXhilaration of the
Olympic bob sleigh chamionship.
The first half of the competition was
ended, and in measure, the treach-
erouS mile and half sweep through
ice banks and dizzying hairpin turns,
zigzagS and croSS-overs, stood humili-
ated, its dangers scorned and spurned
by riders who slashed its sides at dizzy
ing speeds of 65 and 70 miles an hour
to set records that 48 hours ago were
considered not only an impossibility,
but absolute insanity
There has been a universal feeling
among the steel-nerved international
sportsmen who drive these 500-pound
meteors at such speeds down the ice
chute on the mountainside that the
luck OF the riders which has been good
since eight Germans crashed within
two days in practice, sending six to
the hospital, two in critical condition,
would end before these races were over
and that grim Mount Won Hoevenberg
would take its toll again.
THE feeling nearly faded out yester-
i day as Hubert Stevens. as iron-
thewed and frosty-nerved a giant
as ever piloted sled, whipped disdain-
fully through such parelyzing obstacles
as. 'Wtiteface," "Cliffside." Shady
Corner" and "Zigzag," to literally fly
down the mile and half stretch first
in ! minute $3.50 seconds. then in
l:5768 to win the fifth Olympic cham
pionship the United States has ever
captured in the 1882 games and set a
two-man bobsled record that should
last for many years.
Handicapped by 428-second deficit
he conceded Reto Capadrutt of Switzer-
land in the first two heats. due TO
slow start. Hubert and his even larger
brother, Curtis, had to make it up in
two final heats while Capadrutt himself
was turning in phenomenal time. They
took every chance that team could
take, bobbing. heaving the sled ahead
every inch of the way except when
gasping for breath and holding on for
life in the curves, and then came down
in time that would have been excep-
tional for the heavier, swifter, more
dangerous sleds.
A T the end the Stevens boys, joining
n Jack Shea as Lake Placid's own
Olympic heroes. had whipped the
20-year-old Swiss University student
by a second and half, a wide margin
in a g2me of such terrific speeds. The
remainder of the field of II represent
ing eight nations were distanced ana
the defending Olympic championship
pair, Jack Heaton and Robert Minton.
likewise were lost in the ruck of such
opposition although they did take third
place.
Today it was the turn Of another
Homberger-to bear the brunt OF the
foreign audacity, along with Billy
Fiske, who won the 1928 four-man
championship for the United States.
Little fear is felt for Homberger, who
holds the world record of l minute So
seconds. made on this course, and who
predicts that sled will rocket through
the mile and half in l minute 40 Sec
onds before the race is over. He has a
surprise in store for the invaders, who
have had the straightaways packed with
SIlON. llhe CulOpcdil NOuAoco. 1AOHIDOi-
ger likes to ride sheer, glass ice.
He has been working, almost without
sleep, for several days and nights per-
fecting new runners, compromise be-
tween the sharp snow runners OF the
Europeans and the fiat, skatelike blades
of the American sleds Secretly he at
tached them to his sled yesterday and
when the two-man races were over
took his crew down the slide.
He was clocked in ! minute Al 2-5
seconds.