Frank Del Duca and the USA-1 bobsled team put themselves in medal contention with a pair of strong runs Monday at the Winter Olympics in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.

Del Duca, of Bethel, and Josh Williamson sit in fourth place after the first two runs with a time of 1 minute, 54.21 seconds. They are just .1 seconds out of the bronze medal spot. Del Duca pilots the sled and Williamson is the brakeman.

Atop the leaderboard are three German sleds, including No. 1 World Cup pilot Johannes Lochner and brakeman Georg Fleischhauer. The pair set a track record (54.68 seconds) out of the gate and are in good position to win gold. The final two runs are set for Tuesday.

Del Duca, a sergeant in the U.S. Army, was chosen by his peers to be one of two U.S. flag bearers for the 2026 Winter Olympics.

A two-time Olympian, Del Duca will need two more good runs Tuesday to wrestle a medal away from Germany, which won 38 of a possible 42 medals on the World Cup bobsled circuit this season.

Lochner and Fleischhauer finished their two runs in 1:49.90, and nothing short of a disaster on their end should keep them from winning gold Tuesday.

“Such a big lead,” Flesichhauer said. “We didn’t really expect that.”

Their margin at the midway point is 0.80 seconds. Here’s some historical perspective of how absolutely one-sided that is: If you add up the halftime leads in the last nine Olympic two-man races, combined, it comes out to 0.58 seconds.

This is a bobsled blowout.

“He might be perfect,” Del Duca told the Associated Press.

Reigning world and Olympic two-man champion Francesco Friedrich, who has been looking up at Lochner all season in the World Cup rankings, finished two runs in 1:50.70 seconds. He’s the only one within a second of Lochner. Germany’s Adam Ammour is third in 1:51.14, with Del Duca and Williamson fourth in 1:51.24.

Friedrich is trying to become the first five-time gold medalist in Olympic bobsled history, after sweeping the two- and four-man races at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games and the 2022 Beijing Games.

“We have to give all what we can do,” said Friedrich, widely considered the best bobsledder ever. “We want to make the best push times, the best drives tomorrow. … The race is over when four runs are in the finish.”

Technically, that’s true.

In reality, though, it might be over. The race might really be for third between Ammour and Del Duca.

“Frankie Del Duca is right behind us,” Ammour said. “So, yeah, there’s no room for error tomorrow.”

Del Duca is bidding to be the first U.S. medalist in two-man since Steven Holcomb and Steven Langton grabbed silver at the 2014 Sochi Games.

“I left quite a bit of time out there,” Del Duca said. “I mean, as drivers, we always do. I don’t know if someone can really walk away and say it was a perfect run. I haven’t seen Lochner’s runs. … But for us to be this close, it’s really just a testament to our whole system, our people behind us, how hard everybody’s been working.”