Massachusetts Native Helps Rewrite History In Sochi

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Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Matt LaPan, GoLocal Worcester Sports Reporter

It had been 62 years since the United States has captured a medal in the two-man bobsled. The key word being "had". On Monday, the USA-1 bobsled team of Steve Holcomb and Massachusetts native Steve Langton became the first pair to medal at the Olympics since Stanley Benham and Patrick Martin captured a silver medal back in the 1952 games in Olso. The 62-year span between medals in the two-man bobsled is only one year less than the combined age of of the team of Holcomb (33 years old) and Langton (30 years old).

Langton, a former track star at Northeastern University, was the brakeman for the top US team. In the four four runs, the US team combined for a time of 3 minutes 46.27 seconds and finished .22 seconds behind Switzerland-1 and .88 seconds behind Russia-1.

Both Langton and Holcomb will compete in the four-man bobsled event later this week. The bronze medal for Langton was the second bronze medal earned by a Massachusetts athlete, joining Simon Shnapir who earned a bronze in the team figure skating event.

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