Mateusz SOCHOWICZ

FORGETTING SOMETHING?
Made headlines at the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games when he completed his third run without his visor. In the frigid evening air, he put on another layer before his race, only to somehow lose his visor in the process. "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 okay." He finished in 31st on that run. (baltimoresun.com, 11 Feb 2018)

YANQING CRASH
In the training leading up to the first World Cup of the 2021/22 season, he crashed into a closed gate where the men's track meets the women's in Yanqing, the site of the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games sliding events, the foreign athletes' first look at the Olympic track. "I got the green light so I started. For the first time, I was able to calmly ride these [first] two difficult bends. Suddenly, however, I saw a closed gate on the track. I then let the sled out from under me and took the position like a downhill skier. I was hoping that at this speed I would be able to jump over the gate. However, everything was happening too fast and I didn't have time to bounce. That's why my legs are broken, not the rest of my body. If I hadn't reacted, it could have resulted in a tragedy."

He alleged the track staff showed "great incompetence" in their response to the severity of his injury, claiming someone tried to touch the exposed bone with a glove and that he laid on the track for 30 minutes before being transported to hospital. The International Luge Federation (FIL), which immediately instituted additional safety measures on the track, determined fault laid with the organising committee, who in turn "carried out an in-depth inspection of the track and adjusted the organisation of training."

Sochowicz has been consulting with a sports psychologist since the accident. "I'm not giving up on myself yet. I hope to start in Beijing. If the International Luge Federation gave me a wild card and I could focus only on recovery, maybe there would be a chance. However, there is a bigger problem. I don't know if I will be able to rebuild mentally. I don't know if I will ever go on this track. I may be afraid that something might be waiting for me just around the corner." (onet.pl, 8 Nov 2021; tvp.pl, 12 Nov 2021; reuters.com, 10 Nov 2021)

© Data by Sports Data Warehouse

In the 2020/21 season, achieved his first and only World Cup podium with a third-place finish in the Relay at Oberhof.