Austrian skier Matthias Mayer makes it 3 golds in 3 straight Olympics

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Matthias Mayer stuck his poles into the snow, pushed off with his massive legs and attempted to head down the mountain. At least that's where he thought he was going — until one of the Austrian skier's poles got held up, with the countdown clock ominously winding down.

"It was stuck in an aluminum thing and I had to push it out and I got (pushed) back and (did) it again," Mayer said.

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Certainly not the ideal way for the defending champion to begin an Olympic super-G — where the difference between first and second would be only a few hundredths of a second.

Mayer, however, quickly shook it off, and was on his way toward becoming the first man to win gold medals in Alpine skiing at three straight Olympics.

"It was a little bit (of) a nervous start," he said. "But after the first gate I didn’t (think about) that."

That unflappable ability to focus on the task at hand without being distracted by all the other things that can happen during a ski race is one of the big reasons why Mayer is so successful when it counts most.

For Mayer, you see, it's all just a game.

Matthias Mayer of Austria makes a turn during the men's super-G at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2022, in the Yanqing district of Beijing.  (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

"It’s the Olympic Games, so my mindset was about the games. ... playing this game," he said. "I was very focused today and very free in my mind."

Mayer also won the super-G at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games and the downhill at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, which makes him what they call back home in Austria a "Dreifach-Olympiasieger" — three-time Olympic champion.

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