The 33-year-old has spent months on the road, away from his wife Mara and their son Nicolai, who was born last April. While European sliders have seen friends and family, a five-day Christmas break was the only time Mazdzer saw his wife and son in person since September. Video calls are great and all, but he has missed a lot of prime baby time back home in Salt Lake City.

“He’s getting close to taking his first steps,” Mazdzer said Monday. “I really think it could be any day now. So being on the road and missing things like that is obviously really hard.”

He also wasn’t there to help Mara when Nicolai was sick for much of this fall. The viral infections ended up not being too serious, but they were burdensome for Mara and stressful for Chris.

Usually, the World Cup luge tour swings through Lake Placid — Mazdzer grew up in nearby Saranac Lake, where his parents still live — but the North America stops were moved to Europe for the second year in a row, as a coronavirus precaution.

Mazdzer will only get two days off before flying to Beijing for his fourth Olympics. At past games, his family and friends made up the loudest cheering section trackside, but they won’t be able to attend this time. No fans will, thanks to COVID-19.

All the U.S. luge team members say how rough this World Cup season has been, with the pandemic on top of Olympic-year pressure. Instead of checking out European host cities, they have spent their downtime in hotel rooms. They don’t want to blow four years of preparation by catching COVID. For Mazdzer, add to the mix family separation, a divided focus between two luge disciplines, and a broken foot in September.

He has bounced back from adversity before. Four years ago he was having such a difficult season that he rebuilt his sled right before the Olympics in South Korea. He won the silver medal — a first for U.S. men’s singles luge — and was catapulted to national stardom.

Now he’s down in the hole again.

“I’m really not a ‘The world is against me’ kind of person, but it’s pretty tough the last couple months,” he told reporters Monday. “It felt like pretty much nothing went my way, but that doesn’t mean it’s always going to be like that, right? I am always optimistic. I feel like I can overcome anything if I set my mind to it.”

Mazdzer found out Monday that he barely made the Olympic team in singles, but his doubles dreams were dashed Friday when he and Jayson Terdiman, a Lake Placid resident, crashed in what USA Luge had designated as a race-off between the nation’s three men’s doubles sleds for one Olympic slot.

Mazdzer acknowledged some survivor’s guilt.

“I really wish I was here with my doubles partner Jayson,” he said. “It’s just unfortunate. It’s a one-run race; don’t crash in it. So it’s a little bittersweet, you know?”

Being a dad can be a distraction during emotional times like this.

“It’s a great distraction sometimes, but it also can add to your plate because you’re pretty helpless. You just need to be there, and you’re not there,” he said. “And then there’s the times when it’s like, ‘Man, we just crashed in doubles. We’re out of the Olympics.’ And then I get this FaceTime, and he’s just like stumbling around, just being really cute, and it’s like, ‘Yeah, there’s some bigger things than luge out there.'”

He praised Terdiman, also 33, for pivoting to help the doubles duo of Zach DiGregorio and Sean Hollander prepare for their first Olympics. While singles sliders compete the next two weekends, Terdiman quit the tour early to join Hollander, of Lake Placid, and DiGregorio, of Massachusetts, for extra training in Park City, Utah. Terdiman raced in the 2014 and 2018 Olympics and planned to retire this year.

“It just shows who he is, ’cause he’s helping out the best that he can despite a terrible situation,” Mazdzer said of his partner.

Mazdzer himself looked like a man about to retire Saturday in Sigulda, Latvia. Before launching his second run, he looked at the camera and said, “It’s been a fun ride. If this is it, love you guys. Thanks for following.”

“Honestly, in the moment, I didn’t know if that was going to be my last run,” he said Monday. “I don’t think anyone’s ever done that, especially not at the start of a World Cup. It just felt right.”

He said he might have retired if he had not made the Olympic team, but now he is not sure. He wants to race again in North America, especially Lake Placid, and might see if that is possible next season.

“I think I could probably slide Lake Placid in my sleep at this point in my career,” he said.

Now, though, he is revving up for the Olympics.

“I’ve got a clean slate and ready to throw down when it comes,” he said. “Hopefully the ice is minus 20, the hardest, most difficult conditions, people are scared — because I’ll thrive in that.”

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CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story inaccurately said that “the last time (Chris) Mazdzer saw his wife and son in person was in September.” Mazdzer and the rest of the U.S. luge team got a five-day break at home around Christmas. Also, the article inaccurately said, “Mazdzer will only get five days at home before flying to Beijing for his fourth Olympics.” The U.S. luge team will only get two days off. The Enterprise regrets the errors.