Miroslav Zajonc
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| Born | June 10, 1960 (age 55) | ||||||||||||
Medal record
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Miroslav Zajonc (sometimes shown as Miro Zajonc or Miro Zayonc, born June 10, 1960) was a Czechoslovakian-born luger who later competed for both Canada and the United States between the early 1980s and the late 1980s. Competing for Canada, he surprised the World by winning the gold medal in the men's singles event at the 1983 FIL World Luge Championships in Lake Placid, New York in 4 record breaking runs.
Zajonc was born in Czechoslovakia where he grew up in Tatra mountains in the town of Stary Smokovec in Slovakia. He started to Luge in 1971 and later competed for Czechoslovakia until he defected to USA in 1981 where he was not able to compete until 1985 due to US Luge citizenship qualification policy.
Prior to obtaining US Citizenship in 1996 Zajonc was able to compete for Canada and win the World Championships in 1983 in spectacular fashion with out having the large support staff of the dominating German, Italian and Russian Teams. Despite being the underdog Zayonc was able to defeat the dominating Russian Luge World Champion Sergey Danilin and the Italian Olympic Champion Paul Hildgartner, including the 1980 Lake Placid Olympic Champion Bernhard Glass from Germany.
At the 1983 World Championships the Italian Luger Hansjörg Raffl gave Zajonc one of his new speed suits just before the competition to help Zajonc be competitive with the best Teams. Also, Zajonc's victory created problems for Russian Coaching staff as he was able to defeat Danilin on Russian build sled Zajonc purchased from Russian Team just months prior to the race. Despite sliding his best at the time Zajonc was not able to compete at the 1984 Sarajevo Olympics due to not having US Citizenship.
After 1985, Zajonc competed for the US, finally making his only Winter Olympic team when he was selected to compete for the US at Calgary in 1988. He qualified despite breaking his right foot in a training accident five weeks prior to the 1988 Games. Zajonc suffered open fracture and was missing part of his heal bone after hitting his foot at 65 mph 2×6 wall extension that was left square with the bottom of his foot. His injury prevented him from competing in singles and he would finish 11th in the men's doubles event for the US Team sliding with a special cast on his right foot and using crutches to get to the start. The East German Team requested to inspect Zayonc's injury thinking he might be faking it to gain competitive advantage using the pointed cast.
After his retirement in 1988, Zajonc joined the USA Luge Team coaching staff in 1990 and was head coach of the USA Luge Junior National Team from 1991-2011 winning with his athletes 15 World Championship Titles and many over all World Cup victories. Also coaching the US Olympic Luge Teams in 1992, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014 winning 5 Olympic medals. In September, 2012, Zayonc was named U.S. Senior National Head Coach heading for Sochi where the US Luge Team won first ever US singles Luge Olympic Medal with Erin Hamlin winning the bronze medal.
Name change in 1995 to Zayonc to help with English pronunciation.
References
- Hickok sports information on World champions in luge and skeleton.
- New York Times February 7, 1983 article on Zajonc's 1983 World Championship win at Lake Placid. - Accessed June 16, 2007.
- Washington Post January 19, 1988 article on Zajonc's broken right foot. - Accessed June 16, 2007.
- Washington Post February 5, 1988 article on Zajonc being named to US Olympic team. - Accessed June 16, 2007.
- Washington Post February 19, 1988 article on Zajonc competing in Calgary with a cast on his broken right foot. - Accessed June 16, 2007.
- Washington Post February 20, 1988 article on Zajonc's 11th place finish in the men's doubles event at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary - Accessed June 16, 2007.
External links
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