The French bobsleigh team crashed in the four-man event in the second heat at the Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina. The team were 26th in the rankings after their first heat but suffered a heavy crash in the second that left those in the bobsleigh upside down.

There were medical staff trackside to ensure that all of those involved in the crash were able to get out safely, following a concering crash earlier in the same event. All four athletes managed to walk away unscathed and returned to the team area, while the sled itself was removed from the track.

It was the second crash in an hour, after the Austrian team crashed in the bobsleigh event. It was in the same heat of the four-man, where high speed caused the incident, requiring extensive medical attention for the athletes involved in it.

Austria bobsleigh driver Jakob Mandlbauer was stretchered off after being left upside down following the horrifying high-speed crash, with the 27-year-old coming off as the worst of the lot. That in itself caused a 15-minute delay, with the medical attention required.

Mandlbauer has since been taken to hospital with complaints of neck and back pain, following the collision. "I think it's the driver, I think he's so far forward that they can't lift the sled from the wall," the commentary team stated on TNT Sports.

"The others are all sort of buried in the sled, the driver who has his head out most and in a crash, he tries to get out as quickly as he can, but you are doing 70, 80, 90 miles an hour and being bounced around."

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There were horrified onlookers at the event, as the sled can easily reach over 100 kilometres per hour when at its full speed. The delay was necessary to ensure all members were safely attended to before the second crash with the French team, who were fortunately unharmed.

That brought about a dampening end to the second heat, with two heats still remaining over the rest of the four-man at the Winter Olympics.

The end of heat two saw three German teams take the top three positions, with just 0.59 seconds separating those at the very top. Team GB finished the second heat in seventh, 0.82 seconds off the lead, with three teams failing to finish, which includes Austria and France.

There is a third heat on Sunday, February 22, before the fourth and final heat just a few hours later on the same day. It remains to be seen whether the Austrian and French stars will be fit and available to compete in the third and fourth heat for the event.

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