The USA Bobsled Team Will Be Driving Acuras Down The Mountain At The Olympics

Ohio may be better-known for roller coasters than snowy mountains, but it will be playing a big role in the next two Winter Olympic Games.

Honda is sponsoring the USA Bobsled/Skeleton team and assisting in the development of their sleds at its technology centers in Ohio.

That includes the North American Development Center and the use of the wind tunnel at the Honda Automotive Laboratories of Ohio in East Liberty, which is one of the newest and most advanced in the world.

The facility is used to develop Honda’s racing cars and can simulate speeds of up to 192 mph on a rolling road surface.

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“In this, our 50th year of R&D activities in America, we are proud to help the USA Bobsled and Skeleton athletes in their pursuit of gold at the Winter Games and beyond,” Larry Geise, executive vice president of Honda Development & Manufacturing of America.

“In sports where sleds can reach speeds of over 90 miles per hour and the difference between first and last can be measured in fractions of a second, our Honda engineers are eager to apply their engineering skills and racing background to the USABS programs.”

The sleds will wear Acura logos during competitions where that is allowed. The team previously had a similar arrangement with BMW.

Bobsleds often exceed 90 mph, depending on the track, while the head-first single-person skeleton is about 10 mph slower and the aerodynamics are largely dictated by the positioning of the slider.

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“In skeleton, an athlete’s head, shoulders, arms, and leg positions are all imperative to aero and performance. Time at Honda’s HALO wind tunnel will provide valuable feedback to our athletes about their sliding positions to allow them to optimize their results,” Matt Antoine, Head Coach of the USA Skeleton Team said.

The partnership with Honda and Acura is for five years, which will cover both the 2026 Milano Cortina and 2030 French Alps games.