Chris Mazdzer Wins First U.S. Medal in Men's Luge
The men's luge singles competition wrapped up in PyeongChang this weekend, with Team USA regulation hottie Chris Mazdzer sledding himself to second place, and an Olympic silver medal! This is the first time the U.S. has medaled in the men's luge singles (luger Erin Hamlin, Team USA's flag bearer in the Opening Ceremony, won bronze in the women's competition at Sochi).
Austrian luger David Gleirscher won gold in his Olympic debut, beating out Mazdzer by literally two hundredths of a second. German luger Johannes Ludwig won bronze; his teammate (and the highly-favored champ) Felix Loch suffered from a bad, bad, very bad final run and fell short of the podium - Loch had won gold in the event at the both the 2010 and 2014 Games.
Mazdzer told NBC after the medal ceremony that his win had been "16 years in the making." (Lugers at elite level have almost always been competing in the sport since childhood, which is kind of insane when you think about kids rattling down a luge course but then what do I know I used to cut gym class?) "It just shows," he continued, "don't ever give up. Whenever you lose, keep fighting." He's expected to speak more on his history-making performance during a press conference at 8 p.m. EST Sunday night.
To see more of Mazdzer, do watch him strip down a lil' bit for Cosmopolitan.com here. You won't regret it:
And in conclusion, important words from Leslie Jones, because of course: