WHISTLER, British Columbia — Just as he was about to descend into history, Steven Holcomb did his signature shuffle-and-step move called the “Holcy Dance.”

A little more than a mile later the dance looked golden. On a foggy Saturday at the Whistler Sliding Centre, Holcomb and his three-man crew ended a 62-year drought for American bobsledders, winning the gold medal by a whopping 0.38 of a second over German legend Andre Lange.

The 240-pound pilot who looks like a character in a “Saturday Night Live” skit when squeezing into his skintight racing suit delivered on expectations in the sled nicknamed “The Night Train.” The victory helped assure the United States of setting the record for the most medals won by a nation at a Winter Olympics.

“It took me five Olympics just to get a bronze,” said U.S. coach Brian Shimer, who once had Holcomb as a pusher. “And here he is in his second to get a gold.”

Crewman Steve Mesler from Buffalo, N.Y., sounded emotionally wrought when it ended. While zooming through the final of four runs at a track that has had safety issues, Mesler was aware of his surroundings.

“I actually heard the crowd for the first time in years,” he said. “It’s the first time I’ve heard cow bells in the middle of the track. Just thinking about the last 20 years of my life and not even grasping the fact that this is going to happen when we cross that line.”

The man who drove across the line has had one of the most emotional journeys to get there. Holcomb didn’t expect to be in this position in 2000 after contracting keratoconus, an eye disease that causes blurred vision. In 2008, he had a contact lens inserted behind his iris.

He saw the track clearly in his four runs this weekend. And he never flinched.

Holcomb, 29, sounded relaxed throughout, saying Lange had all the pressure in his final Olympics.

“I still think Andre was the hunted,” said Holcomb, the defending world champion. “He wanted to win double gold again. He wanted to go out with a bang. After his two-man showing, he was on fire.”

Lange lost his first Olympics race after winning four gold medals. Lange’s final heat was fast enough to slip past Canada’s Lyndon Rush by 0.01 of a second, leading to a German celebration at the finish line.

They knew as much as anyone that a day of warm, rainy weather that made the track slow was Holcomb’s. The last U.S. bobsled four-man gold came in 1948, when Patrick Henry Martin drove to victory in St Moritz.

Holcomb was quick to explain that the gold medal was a culmination of the right equipment, teammates and coaching. The United States has developed some of the world’s best sleds through the Bo-Dyn Project, which started in 1992 when NASCAR driver Geoff Bodine learned that U.S. bobsledders competed with European-made sleds.

The NASCAR technology drove U.S. bobsledding’s gradual success. But just as important for Holcomb were teammates Justin Olsen, Curt Tomasevicz and Mesler.

“You can’t do it alone,” Shimer said.

All the Americans, however, pointed to Holcomb as the difference in Whistler. Shimer, his coach and former teammate, recalled talking to Holcomb about almost quitting the sport because of his eyes.

“Early on and not even knowing what he was going through, he had to learn to drive by feel,” Shimer said. “That’s carried on through. It’s brought a huge talent out in a bobsledder that I thought could happen.

“He gets into survival mode. He feels his way through it and does it quickly.”

Holcomb wasted just as little time talking about the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

“I’m a lifer,” he said. “I don’t plan on going anywhere. Hopefully I’ll be up there with Andre Lange, 37, 38, years old, doing this.

“How can I give it up?”

Pretty tough when you’re on top of the world.

Contact Elliott Almond at 408-920-5865 and follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/elliottalmond.