Mazdzer’s luge silver a surprise
David Gleirscher struggled to make Austria’s Olympic team. Chris Mazdzer’s season hit rock-bottom less than a month ago. Didn’t matter.
They stood higher than anyone else atop the men’s luge podium yesterday as the reign of Germany’s Felix Loch as Olympic champion came to a slippery, stunning and sudden end.
Gleirscher was the surprise first-run leader — and a bigger surprise as the leader when it was done. He finished his four runs at the Alpensia Sliding Center in 3 minutes, 10.702 seconds for the gold, Austria’s first in men’s luge in 50 years.
Mazdzer made history for the U.S., giving the Americans their first men’s singles medal by finishing second in 3:10.728. Germany’s Johannes Ludwig (3:10.932) was third.
Loch was supposed to be a lock, the one who would tie Georg Hackl’s record as only the second person to win Olympic luge gold three consecutive times. But as snow began to fall, his reign came to an end when he skidded during his final run and lost a ton of time in an instant. He crossed the finish line fifth.
This is how surprising it was: Gleirscher has zero World Cup medals. Never finished better than fourth.
On the biggest stage, he delivered the race of his life. And Mazdzer did the same.
Mazdzer was fourth after the first two heats Saturday, a mere one-thousandth of a second away from a medal spot. Knowing the opportunity was there for the taking, he threw down a track-record time in his third heat — jumping from fourth to second.
In his final run, Mazdzer crossed the line knowing he clinched a medal. There have been 33 men who have represented USA Luge in singles at the Olympics, with a combined 48 appearances between them.
Shiffrin’s giant slalom event on hold
The women’s giant slalom was postponed because of strong winds, the second Alpine skiing race called off at the Olympics.
The giant slalom, which was set to be U.S. star Mikaela Shiffrin’s first event of these Winter Games, was put off until Wednesday about three hours before it was scheduled to begin yesterday.
The race that was supposed to open the Alpine schedule yesterday, the men’s downhill, also was moved to Wednesday.
Stomach bug rampant
The norovirus outbreak among staff and volunteers at the Pyeongchang Olympics continues to grow.
Organizers confirmed 19 new cases of the highly contagious illness yesterday, upping the total cases to 177 since Feb. 1.
Sixty-eight of the 177 cases, mainly among security personnel, have been released from quarantine and returned to work. The source of the outbreak is unclear.