Miroslav ("Miro") Zajonc or Zayonc (born June 10, 1960) is a Slovak-born

luge A luge is a small one- or two-person sled on which one sleds supine (face up) and feet-first. A luger steers by using the calf muscles to flex the sled's runners or by exerting opposite shoulder pressure to the seat. Racing sleds weigh for s ...

r who competed for

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Competing for Canada, he won the gold medal in the men's singles event at the 1983 FIL World Luge Championships in

Lake Placid, New York Lake Placid is a village in the Adirondack Mountains in Essex County, New York, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 2,303. The village of Lake Placid is near the center of the town of North Elba, southwest of Plattsburgh. ...

in four record breaking runs. He represented the United States at the

1988 Winter Olympics The 1988 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XV Olympic Winter Games (french: XVes Jeux olympiques d'hiver) and commonly known as Calgary 1988 ( bla, Mohkínsstsisi 1988; sto, Wîchîspa Oyade 1988 or ; cr, Otôskwanihk 1998/; srs, Guts� ...

Personal life

Zajonc was born on June 10, 1960, in

Spišská Stará Ves Spišská Stará Ves (german: Alt(en)dorf; hu, Szepesófalu or hu, Ófalu; pl, (Stara) Spiska Wieś; la, Antiqua Villa; Goral: Golembarg) is a small town and urban municipality in Kežmarok District in the Prešov Region of north Slovakia. Pr ...

, Czechoslovakia. He grew up in the Tatra mountains in the town of Stary Smokovec in Slovakia. In 1995, he changed the spelling of his surname to Zayonc to aid with pronunciation. He became a U.S. citizen in 1996.

Career

As a competitor

Zajonc started training in luge in 1971 and competed for Czechoslovakia until his defection to the United States in 1981. He was unable to compete for the U.S. until 1985 due to the U.S. luge citizenship qualification policy. Zajonc was allowed to compete for Canada and he won the World Championships in 1983. He defeated world champion Sergey Danilin (Soviet Union), Olympic champion Paul Hildgartner (Italy), and 1980 Olympic champion Bernhard Glass (Germany). Although Zajonc lacked a large support staff like the dominant German, Italian, and Soviet teams, the Italian luger Hansjörg Raffl gave him one of his new speed suits just before the competition to help him be competitive with the best teams. His victory created problems for the Soviet coaching staff as he defeated Danilin on a Soviet-built sled purchased from them just months prior to the race. Despite sliding his best at the time Zajonc was unable to compete at the

1984 Winter Olympics The 1984 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XIV Olympic Winter Games (Serbo-Croatian and Slovene: ''XIV. Zimske olimpijske igre''; Cyrillic: XIV Зимске олимпијске игре; mk, XIV Зимски олимписки игр ...

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its a ...

, due to not having US citizenship. After 1985, he represented the United States and was named in the U.S. team to the

in Calgary. He qualified despite breaking his right foot in a training accident five weeks prior to the Olympics. Zajonc suffered an 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. He used crutches to get to the start. The East German team requested to inspect Zayonc's injury, thinking he might be faking it to gain a competitive advantage using the pointed cast. He retired from competition in 1988.

As a coach

Zajonc joined the USA luge team's coaching staff in 1990. He served as head coach of the junior national team from 1991-2011. His athletes won 15 World Championship titles and many overall World Cup victories. He also coached the US Olympic luge teams in 1992, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014, winning five Olympic medals. In September 2012, Zayonc was named U.S. senior national head coach heading for Sochi. At the Olympics, Erin Hamlin won a bronze medal, the first-ever US Olympic medal in singles luge. In May 2017, Zajonc stepped down as head coach, due to

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

. USA Luge CEO Jim Leahy stated that Zayonc would remain active in the organization.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zajonc, Miroslav 1960 births Living people American male lugers Canadian male lugers Czechoslovak male lugers Lugers at the 1988 Winter Olympics Olympic lugers of the United States Slovak emigrants to the United States People from Spišská Stará Ves People with Parkinson's disease