February 28, 2026
Ice, sleds & spicy threads
The man building Team USA's Olympic bobsleds
One-man shop builds Team USA sleds — fans split between pride, nostalgia and tech drama
TLDR: A Lake Placid engineer built Team USA’s new Olympic bobsleds and says they’re unlike anything else. Commenters are split between hometown pride, Geoff Bodine-era nostalgia, and debates over whether secret tech tilts the playing field or just rewards innovation — all while cracking monobob-and-Mario Kart jokes.
A Lake Placid tinkerer just built Team USA’s Olympic bobsleds, and the comments lit up like a finish-line scoreboard. Marc Van Den Berg, the one-man show behind Team USA’s sleds for Italy 2026, bragged that his designs are fresh, secret, and “not copied.” Cue the peanut gallery. Patriots cheered the “built in Lake Placid” flex, while skeptics side-eyed the cloak-and-dagger vibes and asked if bobsledding is becoming a tech arms race instead of a human showdown. One top note: nostalgia. A veteran commenter invoked NASCAR legend Geoff Bodine’s 1990s push to bring race-car precision to USA bobsleds, reminding everyone that winning often starts in the workshop, not just on the ice. Others shot back with the age-old debate: is it the sled or the sledder? Talk turned spicy when Van Den Berg’s “one-man shop” claim sparked questions about funding (“Why is ONE guy doing all this?”) and parity (“If everyone’s copying, where’s the line between innovation and gamesmanship?”). Meanwhile, jokes chilled the thread: monobob got dubbed “Mario Kart time trial in a 357‑pound fridge,” and someone imagined an IKEA sled kit — Allen key, warning label, and a giant “DO NOT COPY” sticker. The vibe: pride, rivalry, and delicious drama on ice. Read more: Adirondack Explorer
Key Points
- •Marc Van Den Berg built Team USA’s bobsleds at his one-person workshop at Mount Van Hoevenberg near Lake Placid.
- •He is the director of technology and equipment for USA Bobsled/Skeleton.
- •The sleds were shipped by air from New York to Europe and include 10 sleds across men’s and women’s events.
- •Van Den Berg began constructing the Olympic sleds two years ago and delayed public debut to avoid copying.
- •He is currently in Italy with Team USA as the women’s monobob event starts; he says the equipment is up to date and built in Lake Placid.