A colorful group of swashbuckling amateurs populated the icy bobsledding landscape in the 1930s. During the height of the Great Depression, these Speed Kings came to the 1932 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, N.Y., and made their thrilling rides, which reached 80 m.p.h, the must-see event of the first Winter Games on American soil. The US four-man team was an especially interesting bunch, led by Eddie Eagan, a boxing champion and Rhodes Scholar, and Billy Fiske, a young playboy and rogue who would become the first US fighter pilot killed in World War II.
Here’s an excerpt from Speed Kings:
“The sled hurtled down the mountain, 60 mph and still accelerating. There was a rattle from the metal frame, and a sharp rasping hiss from the runners as they cut through the ice. The wind whipped the sounds away from the ears of the four riders. Up front Billy Fiske was hunched over the wheel. He squinted through the early morning mist. He was thinking three corners ahead of the sled, trying always to urge it onto the right racing line. Behind him, Eddie [Eagan], Clifford ['Tippy' Gray], and Jay [O’Brien] were huddled together, with Eddie pressed right up against Billy’s back.”
