What's crazier than doing an Olympic luge run, which involves zooming feet-first down a windy, icy chute at up to 150km/h? Doing an Olympic luge run without a visor to protect your eyes.
Hey, at least Poland's Mateusz Sochowicz had the rest of his helmet on.
And it's probably worth mentioning that the weather in Pyeongchang has been notably frigid, even by the standards of the Winter Games. So that wind rushing into Sochowicz's exposed face Sunday had to be awfully, awfully cold.
Speaking to Poland's Przeglad Sportowy, Sochowicz said the weather that evening was "really cold" even without speeding along in a luge. "So I put on a coat," he said. "Then I lost my protective visor somewhere.
"I didn't realise it until the moment when the green start light lit up. What could I do? I took off without the visor.
"I traversed the whole track nearly blind, but on the whole it turned out ok, although after the ninth [turn], I made another mistake," said Sochowicz.
So it's probably fair to cut Sochowicz some slack for finishing 31st in that run, after posting the 29th- and 19th-fastest times in his first two turns. It might also be fair to ask the nine men who posted a worse time in that run: What's your excuse?
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One man who performed far better was Team USA's Chris Mazdzer, whose second-place finish in the event made him the first American man to win an Olympic medal in singles luge. He also earned a gold medal in understatement by saying of Sochowicz's mishap, "That was not by design."
"You want the face shields on, especially when it's cold," Mazdzer continued. "Not only does it help aerodynamics, but it quiets the sound. I mean, if you're sticking your head out of a car going 120 km/h, you're not going to be able to drive the car.
"So, especially with these crazy race conditions, he made it down – I can't believe he did that. That must have been the most terrifying realisation on the handles to be, like, 'OK, let's go,' and you're like, 'Oh my God!' "
Agreeing with a questioner that it would have been like downhill ski racing without goggles, Mazdzer added, "That is something you do not want to do. But it's the rules – you don't need it, but I highly recommend it."
According to Przeglad Sportowy, Sochowicz "admitted that he'd already gotten a stiff scolding" from the Polish luge team's head coach, Marek Skowronski.
The Washington Post
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