American luger Chris Mazdzer, 'the cool uncle' of Team USA, hopes to pull another medal surprise in Beijing
BEIJING – Life has changed quite a bit for four-time Olympian luger Chris Mazdzer since 2018, and it doesn’t necessarily have much to do with the surprise silver medal he won in Pyeongchang or his "Dancing With the Stars" appearance that came shortly thereafter.
Back then, Mazdzer enjoyed the pace of the World Cup season, the extended trips through Europe, eating his way around the globe.
“We do a gravity-based sport,” he joked this week.
But these days, Mazdzer finds himself in a much different place. Instead of looking for a few extra weeks to travel around after a competition, he’s searching for the first flight home.
“It’s kind of been hard watching my son grow up on FaceTime,” Mazdzer said of 9-month old Nicolai. “I don’t think people realize that when it comes to the sliding sports, we left home in the middle of September with a five-day Christmas break where we’re flying from Europe to the U.S. back to Europe. We’re away from our families a lot more than other sports. That’s been really tough.”
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But the 33-year old Mazdzer, who was referred to by teammate Johnny Gustafson as “the cool uncle” of Team USA, still has at least one more run in him this week and perhaps an opportunity to pull another surprise.
Just like in 2018, Mazdzer does not come into the Winter Games as one of the favorites. In fact, he did not reach the podium or come particularly close during the World Cup season. He was also dealt a blow in early January when he and doubles partner Jayson Terdiman crashed out of a qualifying race that eliminated them from Olympic contention, with the U.S. slot instead going to Zack Di Gregorio and Sean Hollander.
But history says Mazdzer shouldn’t be counted out, particularly on a track that is relatively unfamiliar with one World Cup event contested on it at the beginning of this season but not much of a track record beyond that. The cold conditions here could also play in his favor, just like they did four years ago.
“Every track is different, every season is different and past success -- just like the stock market -- doesn’t predict future gains,” Mazdzer said. “So you really have to take every track, every year, every race one at a time. It’s great having the experience of success especially at the Olympic games. I know how to treat this mentally and that’s really important and that will help me here in Beijing.”
Aside from Mazdzer’s breakthrough in Pyeongchang, where Austria’s David Gleirscher edged him out for the gold by about two hundredths of a second, luge has been a tough sport for Americans to make an impact. Erin Hamlin took bronze in the women’s singles in 2014, and American men’s doubles teams took silver and bronze in 1998 and 2002.
Other than that, it’s a sport that has been largely dominated by the Germans, Italians, Austrians and increasingly Latvians. But the newness of the venue, combined with the pressure of the Olympics, does potentially leave the door cracked for some surprises.
“The track is totally different than anything else we’ve really ever experienced,” said the 24-year-old Gustafson, who is making his Olympic debut. “Just on the technical side, the curves are much more open and the way the track is shaped just feels so much different on the sled. It does leave the competition open pretty well. The first World Cup that was here, people were having trouble in certain spots, and then all the sudden it clicked for them. There’s a lot of room for anyone to do well and it’s kind of an interesting take to go into it like that knowing this is anyone’s game. It’s a completely different track so it’s open to anything.”
But from an American perspective, a lot of eyeballs will be on Mazdzer, given that he emerged as one of the stars of 2018 with his then-girlfriend (now wife) Mara and two sisters gaining a lot of Internet attention for wearing stars-and-strips sports bras as they cheered him on in single-digit temperatures.
Of course, this time there won’t be any friends and family in Beijing given the heavy restrictions on visitors. But Mazdzer plans to have a good time regardless at what might be his last Olympics – he is the fun uncle, after all – and his training runs have been promising.
No matter how it turns out, he’ll have a flight home waiting for him.
“Every Olympic Games has been totally different for me, and it’s not necessarily just about the 2-3 weeks you spend at the Olympic venue,” he said. “It’s the years leading up to it, and every journey has been so different. It’s been fun every single time, very stressful but always enjoyable because we have a great team here and these guys make it a lot of fun.”