Pizza and gratitude: Chris Mazdzer’s joyous silver medal tour is off to a great start

Months before the Olympic Games, Chris Mazdzer described himself as a goofball who knows how to have fun, but, “When the time comes, [I] know how to flip the switch and be serious.”

Winning a silver medal hasn’t changed that.

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Since Mazdzer won the U.S.’s first medal in men’s singles luge in history on Sunday night in PyeongChang, Mazdzer has flipped between goofball and emotional with ease – and whether it’s eating a slice of pizza in one bite or penning a heartfelt note on Instagram, he’s enjoying all that comes with the medal around his neck.

Mazdzer put it perfectly when he spoke with NBC’s Lewis Johnson just before his final run: “I’m gonna go up there with the same mentality [as always]. Throw down and have fun.”  

He could have been talking about the way he eats pizza. Mazdzer doesn’t eat pizza like a normal person. And no, this isn’t a debate about whether one should fold their pizza or not, this is a debate about whether it should be possible to eat a slice of pizza in one bite or not. If you’re a silver medalist, though, you can get away with whatever you want, even if it means throwing down the whole slice in one:

Mazdzer isn’t the only one having fun in PyeongChang, though. So is his family. His sisters Kate and Sara, and girlfriend Mara Marian were some of the liveliest fans on hand at the luge track on Sunday:

The goofball who hasn’t stopped smiling since winning his historic medal hasn’t shied away from his serious side, either. He flipped the switch on the luge hill, and he also flipped the switch to thank everyone who has supported him throughout it all. He went to social media to thank his fans with a heartfelt note:

Mazdzer isn’t taking any of this for granted. And now, he has one more way to describe himself – goofball, serious, silver medalist.