Olympic silver medalist and former “Dancing With The Stars” contestant Chris Mazdzer expects to be back in top shape just in time for the luge world championships this weekend in Sochi.
“Mentally, I’m always about 100 percent,” Mazdzer said on a conference call this week. “I’m physically doing great also.”
Mazdzer, one of very few luge sliders to participate in both singles and doubles, has been dealing with a neck problem that caused him to miss the last four World Cup stops.
On the other side of the injury report, 2019 world championship bronze medalist Emily Sweeney has gone back to the U.S. to deal with a neck problem, a lingering result of a crash in the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics in which she suffered fractures in her neck and back.
Sweeney has been on the podium in three World Cup races this season. Summer Britcher has reached the podium four times, including a third-place finish earlier this month in Oberhof, Germany.
Tucker West had a pair of second-place finishes in Lake Placid earlier this season.
Mazdzer’s doubles partner, Jayson Terdiman, also has had a neck issue but is set to compete.
With several women from the perennially dominant German team, including two-time defending Olympic champion Natalie Geisenberger, out of action this season, Russia’s Tatyana Ivanova is the leader in the women’s World Cup, just ahead of Germany’s Julia Taubitz in a two-woman race for the season title.
Russia’s Roman Repilov is the men’s World Cup leader. Germany’s Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken have a slim lead over their longtime rivals Tobias Wendt and Tobias Arlt in the doubles competition.
The championships will be live on OlympicChannel.com, with delayed broadcasts on the Olympic Channel and NBCSN.
| Day | Time (ET) | Event | Network |
| Friday | 5:30 a.m. | Doubles sprint | OlympicChannel.com |
| 6:25 a.m. | Women’s sprint | OlympicChannel.com | |
| 7:20 a.m. | Men’s sprint | OlympicChannel.com | |
| Saturday | 5:40 a.m. | Doubles | OlympicChannel.com |
| 8:15 a.m. | Women’s singles | OlympicChannel.com | |
| 12:30 p.m.* | Doubles | Olympic Channel | STREAM | |
| 2 p.m.* | Women’s singles | Olympic Channel | STREAM | |
| Sunday | 5:15 a.m. | Men’s singles | OlympicChannel.com |
| 9:50 a.m. | Team relay | OlympicChannel.com | |
| 11:30 a.m.* | Men’s singles | Olympic Channel | STREAM | |
| 10:30 p.m.* | Highlights | NBCSN |
*Delayed broadcast
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