told the Daily Beast. “To help me get to a place that I was OK not being OK.”These days, Blaser is more than OK. He achieved his Olympic goal with a trip to the 2022 Beijing Games, and represented Team USA during this year’s World Cup and World Championships.With a successful skeleton career under his belt — in addition to many crashes — Blaser decided to retire from the sport in September.
But he forever left his mark as an out LGBTQ+ athlete. Known for wearing snake suits and painting his fingernails, Blaser raced in the 2022 Games with a rainbow saddle on his sled. It was quite a creative way to get around the IOC’s bans on protests and demonstrations.
Blaser always finds a way to let his personality shine. Fresh off a wild Pride weekend in Palm Springs, Queerty recently caught up with Blaser to talk about his painted nails, pet snake and feelings on retirement. Here’s what he had to say…QUEERTY: Skeleton is such a dangerous sport! Did you have any scary, “holy sh*t” crashes?ANDREW BLASER: I had a lot of them.
I was kind of known for getting frustrated with the sport and threatening to retire frequently. I would cry a lot, and I’m not a thrill seeker. I know that sounds kind of weird, but when I drive a motorcycle, I stay within my little speed limit.
I don’t like rollercoasters or being kind of out of control. So that part made it interesting.I did have a couple of really good crashes. I had one my first year in Europe, when I was just starting with the skeleton.
First rundown in Innsbruck, which is a very mild track. You’re not gonna get injured in Innsbruck, typically. I remember my first run, I’m at the top and kind of anxious about it, and my sled comes out of the groove going in one direction, kind of equidistant from where my hand is going, and I was just kind of half on the ice, half on my sled for the very first run.
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Marilyn Monroe