Chris Mazdzer | Beijing 2022 Olympic Profile

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Team USA Luger Chris Mazdzer shares his experience training for his 4th Olympics, explains how he plans to compete with a cast on his foot because of some broken toes, and descibes why he loves luge so much.

Video Transcript

CHRIS MAZDZER: This will be my fifth Olympic cycle, hopefully my fourth Olympic game. The last games got silver and singles, first non-european man to do that and my discipline. This time around teamed up with Jason, we're going for singles and doubles. That's only been done once before winning a medal in both disciplines, and that happened back in the 70s.

So that was when the sport was totally different. Honestly felt so good coming into the season. We have all new equipment that we are just really psyched about. Day two in Russia, unfortunately hit a wall, didn't even crash and shot a couple of toes and just found out. Also have a crack at my ankle so it's just a lot of fun.

So we didn't start off the season on a high note, but that's OK everyone loves a good comeback story. We're working hard, and Yeah we'll be sliding here in China in just a few weeks with a pretty serious cast. It's not like a full on cast, it's like a carbon fiber, basically in the shape of our shoe.

So it's not going to be that heavy. It's not going to look totally wild. So you know we're good at building things at USA luge. We're very-- this time they actually used 0 duct tape which I think is a first so that's going to be good.

I do the sport because I absolutely love it. I think it is the most fun. It's ultimate sled, it's the most fun you can have in the winter. I also honestly think that luge is my medicine.

I have ADHD and I think that it's the only time I am fully concentrated on a single thing so it feels good. But there are risks involved. And I think luge has taught me how to handle fear and understanding that you're taking a calculation.

But if you do this your entire life, I have 20 years of experience where yes I know something bad can happen. And Jason and I talk like there are times when Jason's like are you sure you want to do this? Like when we were testing out the sled two years ago, I'm like we got this you know.

And so it's a collective group thing but you have to push through your fear, at least understand it more importantly. And yes there are risks involved. But when you get that perfect run, it is the best feeling in the world.