Ken Topalian was 30 years old at the time of the Lillehammer Games, and is from Pawtucket, Rhode Island.[7]Joe Almasian was 26 years old at the time, and was born in Framingham, Massachusetts.[8] They were friends through the Armenian Youth League, neither had ever been to Armenia.[7] The two-man bobsleigh competition was held over two days, 19–20 February, with two runs being held on each day; the sum of all four run times was used to determine final placement.[9] On the first day, the Armenian sled posted times of 54.85 seconds[10] and 55.03 seconds.[11] Overnight, they were in 37th place out of 43 competing teams.[12] The next day, their run times were 54.92 seconds[13] and 55.01 seconds[14] This made their total time for the competition 3 minutes and 39.81 seconds, which put them in 36th position.[9] The gold and silver medals were won by Swiss sleds, and the bronze was taken by an Italian team.[9]
