Mateusz Sochowicz completes incredible recovery to make Beijing 2022

Mateusz Sochowicz is one of the most respected athletes in the luge at Beijing 2022.

His time at the Yanqing National Sliding Centre won't bring a medal, but athletes are queuing up to praise the man who has performed heroics just to make it to the Games.

On Saturday (5 February), the Pole completed two runs on the track where he suffered a horrific crash less than three months ago.

As quoted by Sports Illustrated, Great Britain’s Rupert Staudinger said: “Look at the story, it’s crazy.”

"Everyone has a huge level of respect for him,” USA's Tucker West added about the man nicknamed 'Seagull'. “To come back on a track that quite nearly put him out for the rest of his life is very impressive."

Speaking to the Associated Press before the competition, Sochowicz said, "My story may have ended at the scene of the accident or it may end happily, and I would not forgive myself if I had not tried."

Mateusz Sochowicz - the hard road back to Beijing

In November 2021, Sochowicz was on what should have been a routine test run when he spotted the terrifying sight of a closed metal barrier which should have been open.

Thinking quickly, the 25-year-old let go of his sled and tried to vault over the gate.

Unfortunately, he struck it and fractured his left knee cap as well as sustaining cuts on his right leg so deep that bone was left visible.

A furious Sochowicz went to Peking University Hospital for surgery before returning home to Poland a week later to continue his rehabilitation after an accident caused by human error.

His aim was set in stone: return in time to make his second Olympic Winter Games.

There were plenty of scars for Sochowicz, mental as well as physical.

For the former, Sochowicz worked extensively with a Polish team psychologist.

There was also plenty of body damage to repair. Even sleep was hard to come by as even a light blanket touching his leg would leave him in immense pain.

A simple task such as getting into a car could take as long as 10 minutes. There were some days where he couldn't walk at all.

Eventually he got back on the sled and returned to competition at St. Moritz a fortnight ago for his sole World Cup appearance of the season.

Incredibly, he finished 22nd out of 26 competitors in an aggregate time for the four runs just over two seconds slower than winner Wolfgang Kindl.

The Olympic dream was back on.

A happy return

Upon arriving back in Beijing for the Olympic Winter Games, Sochowicz made sure to stop off at Peking University Hospital to thank those who treated him.

He met the surgeon who operated on him and admitted, "The doctor said, when he was repairing me on the table, he was thinking I will not make it to the Olympics. He was so happy for me."

He also had some celebratory photographs after recovering from his injury, but still wonders about the details of how it occurred: “I’m pretty curious what I’ve done in this situation. In my mind I was jumping through it.”

However, one of the greatest mental reliefs will be that he went through the exact turn he'd been injured on without fear.

There was still room for some self-criticism: "It was not my best," he said late Saturday. “Not good ones even. I messed up, to be honest.”

The luge will see more impressive times and blistering performances during Beijing 2022, but the Seagull in full flight will be one of its most incredible moments.

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