Background
Zajonc was born in Czechoslovakia where he grew up in Tatra mountains in the town of Stary Smokovec in Slovakia.
Zajonc was born in Czechoslovakia where he grew up in Tatra mountains in the town of Stary Smokovec in Slovakia.
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. He started to Luge in 1971 and later competed for Czechoslovakia until he defected to United States of America in 1981 where he was not able to compete until 1985 due to United States Luge citizenship qualification policy. 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 United States Citizenship. After 1985, Zajonc competed for the United States, finally making his only Winter Olympic team when he was selected to competed for the United States 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 2x6 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 United States 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 United States of America Luge Team coaching staff in 1990 and was head coach of the United States of America 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 United States Olympic Luge Teams in 1992, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014 winning 5 son
Name change in 1995 to Zayonc to help with English pronunciation.