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The United States bobsled team
— five members this
year — gets the gold.
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The 1928 Winter Games in St. Moritz marked the
first time Germany was allowed to
participate in any Olympic competition after World War I. Bobsledding was in the news
at the 1928 Games. A new event, the skeleton sled,
was added to the program. In addition, teams in the
four-man bobsled event had an option to include a
fifth member. They all took up that option. Highlights
 William "Billy" Fiske of the United States drove the
bobsled team to Olympic glory in St. Moritz.
Only 16, he became — and still is
— the youngest U.S. male athlete to win
a gold medal. He repeated his gold- medal
performance in the bobsled at the 1932
Games, but passed on a third attempt at the
1936 Games because, according to a former
U.S. Olympic teammate, of his disdain for
Germany's leader, Adolf Hitler.
After the outbreak of World War II in
Europe, Fiske joined the Royal Air Force as
a volunteer pilot. On Aug. 16, 1940, he died
in an aerial fight with a German bomber — the first American pilot to die in World War
II.
Fifteen-year-old Sonja Henie of Norway —
unnoticed at Chamonix in 1924 — shot to
stardom. She won the gold medal in
women's figure skating, and would repeat
her gold medal feat twice more: 1932 at
Lake Placid, N.Y., and 1936 at
Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.
Clas Thunberg of Finland once again
was the man to beat in speedskating. At St.
Moritz, he added two gold medals in the
500m and 1500m event to the three golds he
earned at the 1924 Chamonix Games.
| Attendance | Male Athletes | Female Athletes | Most-Medaled | U.S. Rank | | 25 nations | 468 | 27 | Norway (15) | Second |
Source: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
© Copyright 1998 The Washington Post Company
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