MOOSIC, Pa. — Jayson Terdiman's entire career has been about going fast, which is exactly why stopping so suddenly is so hard.
"I'm going to try to keep it together while I answer this question the best I can," Terdiman admitted in a Zoom press conference. "It's definitely been a lot of waves of emotions, a lot of overwhelming waves."
Questions the Berwick-native wasn't expecting to answer this past week - questions about his retirement from competition.
Along with his new teammate, Chris Mazdzer, Terdiman was on pace to become the first USA Luge athlete to make the Olympics three times with three different doubles partners. He was on the Silver Medal-winning relay team at the World Cup this past November. But at the Nations Cup qualifier in Latvia last week, it all came crashing down - literally.
There is no footage, but similar to this crash, the two crashed and were eliminated from Olympic Team consideration for both doubles and the team relay. Mazdzer still made the team in singles, but for the 33-year-old Terdiman, he knew this was his final Olympic run. He fought back tears just thinking about it.
"Looking back at it now, knowing that was more than likely my last competitive run, it's heartbreaking," Terdiman explained. "Chris and I had a moment after I got off the ice a great embrace and... it's tough, but a couple hours later it was what can I do to continue to help this team because just because my journey's over doesn't mean this show's going to stop."
Which is why Terdiman is letting his teammates use his sled, which happens to be the fastest one they've got. Now, Terdiman is looking ahead to the next chapter in his career - coaching the sport he loves - a transition he's already begun.
"Getting the opportunity to kind of start my next hopeful career early was hopefully extremely beneficial, not just for me but for my teammates," he said. "I don't want to say it's making this easier because this is not easy for me, but it's definitely giving me the confidence in the fact that I've set myself up to know what to do, how to interact with athletes that are training and hopefully it will pay off dividends down the road."
Team USA pushed to have Terdiman make the trip to Beijing as a coach, but he said logistically, that's unlikely, but he said he'll watch every race live, no matter the time difference.