Since 2013, BMW and the USA Olympic Bobsled/Skeleton team have been working together to try and win some precious medals at the Winter Olympic Games. The first result of the collaboration came in the shape of a BMW-designed bobsled, ahead of the Sochi 2014 Olympic Games. Today, the USA team is competing in South Korea also using the innovations developed by the German brand.
During its maiden outing, the solution developed by BMW managed to come back from Sochi with three medals and this year, there’s hope for even more. In October 2013, a fleet of six new BMW U.S. two-man bobsleds were delivered to the USA Bobsled/Skeleton team, replacing a 20-year-old platform. The resulting sled – dubbed “the ultimate sliding machine” – helped Steven Holcomb and Steve Langton earn a bronze medal — the USA’s first medal in the men’s two-man bobsled event since 1952.
The two-man women’s teams earned two medals: Elana Meyers and Lauryn Williams won a silver medal and Aja Evans and Jamie Greubel came away with a bronze. Since 2014, the BMW-designed bobsleds have been refined in continuance of a highly iterative development process that involves constant consultation and on-site immersion with USABS athletes, coaches and engineers from Designworks, BMW Group’s international design studio headquartered in California.
“We are incredibly proud of what was achieved in 2014 and hope that we can help the athletes of USA Bobsled replicate, if not improve that that success,” said Trudy Hardy, Vice President of Marketing, BMW of North America. “Our partnership with BMW has been an important part of our success. We introduced our BMW two-man bobsleds four years ago and together we have been able to make the fastest sleds in the world even faster today,” said Darrin Steele, CEO, USABS. “With BMW’s support the sleds will continue to get faster in the future, and we expect to see a lot more medal performances as a result.”
