Chris Mazdzer in ninth place as US men's lugers face uphill battle for medal at Beijing Games
BEIJING – Even for a four-time Olympian, the fear of crashing can be hard to shake in a sport as unforgiving as luge.
Chris Mazdzer, the American silver medalist from 2018, was no exception.
After a crash on his sixth and final training run Friday that left him with a stinger and forced him to skip the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony to recover, he said he came into Saturday’s competition playing it too safe. It put him in a difficult position if he wants to medal for a second straight Olympics.
At the halfway mark of men’s singles, Mazdzer sits in ninth place, 1.318 seconds behind leader Johannes Ludwig of Germany. In this sport, where fractions of seconds make all the difference, a slight hiccup coming out of curve 13 in his second run cost him some speed and left him with a few regrets.
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"It’s funny because I really feel like I’m good at putting crashes and things like that behind me," Mazdzer said. "But I pulled up on my left handle, and my sled’s out of control right now. I can’t do that unfortunately, and it was one of those moments where I’m like, ‘Man, I should have just gone for it, but it’s hard sometimes. Fear is a real thing, and it made me pull on that left handle just a little bit too much."
Mazdzer’s performance led the American contingent, with Tucker West sitting in 11th place and Johnny Gustafson in 18th. West performed particularly well in his second run, putting up the eighth-fastest time after an admittedly nervous start where he did not make a clean transition between curves 1 and 2.
"I had a pretty good skid going up the curve, and any mistakes at the top of the track will compound downward with time," West said. "I feel strong about (11th place). It’s definitely outside the medals but just looking for a good performance and putting myself into a spot where I can race against my teammates and make the relay later in the week."
Both West and Mazdzer said they struggled with control in the extremely cold conditions at the Yanqing Sliding Center, which produced the hardest ice they’ve had to slide on all season long.
"It’s probably as hard as the concrete you’re standing on," Mazdzer said. "We have metal runners. There’s not a lot of friction there. To go faster, you reduce your friction so you can drop your angle. It’s kind of an all-or-nothing thing where you can gain some speed but you can also make bigger mistakes. I have to make sure I do the curves perfectly."
He didn’t, and he admits it might well have been mental residue from Friday’s crash that forced him to miss the opening ceremony in favor of physical therapy.
"We’re moving 75 miles an hour and I dropped 10 feet onto my shoulder and neck and I’m lucky, I really am after watching it a couple times," Mazdzer said. "I’m fortunate I was able to compete today. We’ve got an awesome medical staff and like Humpty Dumpy they put me back together."
Though Mazdzer has not said officially that this is his last Olympics, the 33-year old has talked extensively about wanting to spend more time at home with his wife and 9-month old son Nicolai. After winning a silver medal – the only American to do so in singles luge – there’s not much more he can add to the resume.
The plan for Sunday is, quite simply, just to let it rip one more time.
"In luge you’ve got to have four good runs," Mazdzer said. "Today parts of them were really good. I don’t want to say my head got to me from the crash, but I definitely messed up (coming) out of 13 and haven’t been doing that at all. So tomorrow the goal is just to commit and go for it and make it happen."