‘Proud of what we’ve done’: Army sergeant, teammate come up just short — fourth — in Olympic bobsled

Army Sgt. Frank Del Duca and teammate Joshua Williamson slide down the track during a two man bobsled run at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026. (Alessandra Tarantino/AP)

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — Army Sgt. Frank Del Duca always seeks ways to improve his bobsledding skills.

But following the two-man bobsled competition on Tuesday at the Milan Cortina Winter Games, he took a second to consider how much better he has become since his first Olympics experience.

The 34-year-old Del Duca and teammate Joshua Williamson just missed out on a medal with a fourth-place finish in a time of 3 minutes, 41.96 seconds at the Cortina Sliding Centre. Yet that was nine places higher than his performance in Beijing in 2022.

The Americans finished 0.44 seconds off bronze, which went to German pilot Adam Ammour and teammate Alexander Schaller with a time of 3:41.52. Del Duca and Williamson entered the day 0.1 seconds behind.

German teams swept the podium. Johannes Lochner and Georg Fleischhauer took gold with a time of 3:39.70. Francesco Friedrich and Alexander Schuller earned silver at 3:41.04.

“As of this week, we put our hearts and souls into this race — and not just this week, for years and years and years,” he said. “We do have to be proud of what we’ve done.”

His teammate concurred, saying the U.S. program is miles ahead of where it was when Williamson started nine years ago.

“If you would have told us we would have got a chance at a fourth-place finish in the Olympics four, five years ago, we would have been ecstatic,” Williamson said. “We still have a long way to go, but I’m proud of the effort we’ve put in.”

Del Duca and Williamson produced their two best runs Tuesday evening, starting with a 55.38 run in the third heat. They dropped that time by 0.04 seconds for the final heat’s third-fastest time.

But Ammour and Schaller pulled away to an insurmountable 0.45-second advantage by completing their third heat in 55.03 seconds.

Del Duca rated his driving as a B-plus in the final two runs.

“We were actually pretty good,” the Bethel, Maine, native said. “I have to see it in slow motion, but it felt pretty good in the sled. It felt like we were really building speed.”

The results in the two-man competition have Del Duca feeling confident heading into the four-man competition, where he will pilot the top U.S. sled.

The event begins Saturday and ends Sunday.

Once again, he and his teammates will be chasing the Germans. Del Duca credited the entire program.

“You have to be perfect or as close to it as possible,” Del Duca said of trying to beat the Germans. “They do everything right. They start phenomenal, they drive phenomenal and they have phenomenal equipment. They have the package.”