From Lake Placid, USA
(December 4, 2023) – After originally setting his sights on another full season of sliding in the FIL World Cup, Chris Mazdzer decided that family is going to come first.
The 2018 Olympic silver medalist and multi-time World Cup gold medalist will make his final runs in the World Cup season opener in Lake Placid in front of family, friends, and supporters who have helped made his illustrious career what it was.
Mazdzer’s career has been filled with ups and downs, with highs as high as an Olympic medal in Pyeongchang, and lows that have involved various injuries and disappointing finishes. Through it all he had been one of the faces of USA Luge.
Sliding On Ice caught up with him on Monday afternoon, hours after he’d made an announcement on social media. Below is the full text of the interview, as well as the social media post announcing his retirement to the world.
I know you’ve been teetering near retirement for some time, was it just time?
It’s a couple of things: Honestly, I started out the year, this spring, like “okay, maybe it’s time to retire.” USA Luge made some big moves, brought on some coaching changes and have had some great plans for moving us forward. So a big thing for me was that I really like the direction of USA Luge right now. I think it’s going to take a year or two for the whole transition to happen, but I’m really excited. So I told them I’m coming back.
Going into the season I really was planning on going all the way into World Championships. Even when the season began…then all these little things started to add up. Thinking back to the 2022 Olympic season I left home on September 15, and by the time I got back at the end of February I’d only spent 8 days at home.
And that’s something that luckily my son will never remember, because he wasn’t even a year old. But it’s something my wife always will, and it’s something I don’t want to do again to my family. As the season started I would facetime with my son and he’d be there with his arms folded and be upset that I was gone. It was like one of those things that was slowly killing me, and I wasn’t expecting that at all.
He doesn’t know what a guilt trip is but he’s super good at it so far!
He’s so, so good at it! So that’s part of it, and my wife is pregnant with baby number two! She’s due in April, and that’s a big part of this: Being with my family. The life of a sliding sport athlete…like the sliding sport athlete from North America, we live on the road. We’re gone for months and months and months. And if you’re early to mid 20s and you’re single it’s a great lifestyle! You’re traveling the world and a lot of times someone else is supporting that.
All of a sudden that changes when you’ve got a family and a few kids. So that’s a big part of it.
The last piece…daycare is expensive! Nobody tells you that! Nobody tells you how expensive daycare is, and you need daycare! If you have two working parents it is 100% a necessity! So the next factor is that financial security. I started a job working for a tech company called BambooHR. I’m doing software sales, but I really enjoy it: the people, the process, it’s really good!
The problem is that it’s an 8-5 job, so you’re in full time. And to also do luge and also have a family and support them, something had to give. So I came into this season really expecting to go through World Championships and it was all these little things that just added up.
The straw that broke the camel’s back was my son just upset with me on FaceTime…but my neck isn’t what it used to be and it’s bothering me a little bit. So it was like, what am I doing? And at the end of the day and factor everything in, my priorities have changed. I want to be there for my family. I love the sport, and can I go a few more World Cups this year? Yes. But also Id on’t think I’ll ever have the opportunity to finish at home.
First off, as an athlete it’s a luxury to choose when you retire. But it’s an even bigger luxury to choose WHERE you’re going to retire. Sliding sports like luge, it’s an individual sport but nobody sees the support staff. Nobody sees how your friends and family are really there for you through all of the ups and downs and it’s just a whole village to get an athlete to the Games. There’s more downs in my careers than ups, and it’s required so many people to help me get through it physically, emotionally, mentally, financially, just to get to that position. And to be able to share my last race with the people I care about the most is pretty cool.
When I realized that a few weeks ago, I thought that this just makes sense and I feel really good about it.
When did you pull the trigger on this exactly?
I decided this about two weeks ago, as I was going from Lake Placid to Whistler for training. So I told the team when we were in training in Whistler. I reached out to people on an individual basis and coaches on an individual basis, and told the whole team.
And it’s something I’m going to miss. I’ve been doing this my entire life and I love being a part of the process. I love this sport. So it’s going to be tough to walk away, but after making that decision a few days later I felt really good about it and that’s how you know you’ve made the right decision.
Any plans on sticking around and helping out with the team?
So my entire focus is to be home with my family in Park City, so I told them: If you’re in Park City and you have equipment to test I probably have another year and a half until my feeling is gone! So if you need me for anything, use me as soon as possible.
I think I’ll always be involved in this sport in some capacity. That’s just who I am. I think that athletes are by far the biggest stakeholders to not only with national governing bodies but the whole US Olympic and Paralympic Committee and the whole Olympic movement. We’re really the ones who inspire the next generation. The athletes today are the ones getting the future generations into the sport and into the movement. We set a really good example of what working hard with great determination and setting goals can do. So that’s why I want to be a part of making sure that athletes continue to be a major stakeholder in the organizations.
A lot of times I think that organizations forget that, and that’s why I wanted to be an athlete representative. So with that said I’ll be involved somehow, but right now I have no idea. I’m still the Team USA athlete representative for luge, so I’ll be in that capacity for sure for at least three more years. So I feel really good about that, really helping bring awareness of athlete needs to the USA Luge executive board.
But as far as being on a sled, that time is over here.
Last runs coming up this week: Any nerves about it better be good, or have you already done it all and let’s let it fly?
I think that’s the benefit to being at home: You can just let it fly! I’m lucky that I know that everyone who supports me supports me as a person and not just because of results. I think going through the trials and tribulations of going through life as a luge athlete and having results or not, I know the people coming support me win or luge…no pun intended…that’s a pretty cool feeling. And that helps me know that I can just go for it, it doesn’t matter if I mess up, so I can just go for it!
As long as I know that I was pushing it, I’m totally fine with the outcome. And that’s just really cool.
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