Summary Holcomb suffers a calf muscle injury during the two-man competition earlier in the Games.
ROSA KHUTOR (AFP) - US pilot Steven Holcomb is undergoing acupuncture and laser therapy treatment in a race against time to be fit for the four-man bobsleigh event starting on Saturday.
Holcomb suffered a calf muscle injury during the two-man competition earlier in the Games but still managed to win the bronze medal with brakeman Steven Langton.
"I m trying to take it easy," said the 33-year-old pilot of USA-1. "I need to be as close to 100 percent on race day as possible. I took a couple of steps but I m not putting a lot of pressure on it.
"I m sticking to acupuncture, massage and laser stuff to help increase blood flow. Right now I m feeling much better. On race day my adrenaline will be going, I ll put in my mouthpiece, bite down hard and dig deep."
Holcomb, who underwent a delicate eye operation to treat a degenerative condition known as keratoconus in 2008, said that the Russians, who won the two-man event, look favourites, with the advantage of racing on their home track.
"(Alexander) Zubkov really knows the lines," Holcomb said, referring to the Russian pilot.
"I can learn if he s making mistakes by watching him. After the two-man we know he is super-fast but all season he hasn t done that great. Somehow he s crushing everyone at the Olympics."
German bobsleigh star Maximilian Arndt, who won the four-man World Cup title this season, is looking to improve on a 15th-place finish in the two-man event.
"We are fully aware that the German two-man performance did not meet expectations but we have to overcome it and we need to look at what is ahead of us," he said.
"Our first training runs in four-man were good but later we had some strange feelings especially in the last part of the track. We need to figure out what is happening and put everything into it to compete well."
Swiss pilot Beat Hefti, who won silver in the two-man, said he felt no pressure ahead of the four-man competition.
"Having a silver medal on my trophy belt already definitely relieves the pressure," he said.
"Now we can race with a released mindset. I am very relaxed now and only feel a positive and not an exhausting tension. So I am driving with greater ease and this is very important, especially on this track.
"The track is still in good shape and I get a better feeling for it from one run to the next."
The four-man bobsleigh event is raced over two days, with two heats on Saturday and two heats on Sunday.
