How Matthew Greiner Trained His Mind to Handle the Biggest Moment of His Life
He was shaking. His mouth had gone dry. He was standing at the top of an Olympic luge track in front of the biggest moment of his life, and the world felt like it was closing in from every direction. Everyone he had ever known was watching. Everyone he had never met was watching. The pressure was real. And it was threatening to swallow him whole.
Then he reached the start handles. He heard the timer. And something inside him, something that had been quietly built over years of visualization of this exact moment, clicked into place.
When the timer went off, it was just another training run for Matthew Greiner.
"I was so nervous, I was shaking, my mouth went dry — and then I got to the start handles, and I recognized where I was.” — MATTHEW GREINER, ON HIS FIRST OLYMPICS
The Four Year Spotlight
There are World Cups and a full international circuit which Matthew has competed in for years. But the Olympic Games are different. The spotlight that descends every four years reaches fans that the regular season never does. Sation pay attention, briefly and intensely, to the fastest Olympic sport on ice.
Matthew felt all of it in Cortina.
“Your first Games is a really intense experience and it was the biggest moment of my life up to that point. You know, it still is the biggest moment of my life looking back on it. And the pressure is a lot.” - MATTHEW GREINER
His approach wasn't to pretend the nerves weren’t there. It was to redirect attention to the things he loves about the sport, to the thrill he's been chasing since he was 8 years old, and to the reality that competing at an Olympic Games is, at the end of the day, an extraordinary privilege.
“Everyone that you do know is watching. Everyone that you don’t know is watching. But it’s a lot of fun.” Matthew reflects with a laugh.
The Moment He Knew The Work Had Paid Off
Visualization is a practice Matthew had been doing for years heading into the Games. He knew it was supposed to work. He had been told it would work. But knowing something and experiencing it under the full weight of an Olympic first run are two entirely different things.
At the start handles, in the middle of a shaking, dry-mouthed, world-crashing moment of Olympic pressure, the thousands of repetitions he had run in his mind surfaced exactly when he needed them. The track looked familiar. The sound of the timer was familiar. His body knew what to do because his mind had already been there.
"I didn't really realize it [visualization] was working until I got to the Games. As soon as the timer went off, it was just another training run. Everything I had done up to that point readied me for the situation — and it came together." — MATTHEW GREINER
While the work he put in to train his mindset in preparation for his Olympic debut was invisible, the result was not.
Superstitious? Absolutely.
Matthew knocks on wood before every single run. It’s a habit he picked up from a teammate and has incorporated into his own competition. Before leaving the start house, he says good runs to everyone around him.
These superstitions help with fear management, which he acknowledges doesn’t go away even at the Olympic level.
"Some days it's just about as scary as it was on day one. Especially when you've been off the sled for six months. And it's like…can I still do this? But you find yourself." — MATTHEW GREINER
At the Olympic Games, at 90 miles per hour with the whole world watching, Matthew made his 8-year-old self proud.
ABOUT THIS SERIES
I'm Amy Wotovich and I am on a mission to interview 100% of Team USA's 2026 Olympic and Paralympic athletes to create the most comprehensive mindset record of a single Games cycle. What do elite competitors actually believe about pressure, identity, failure, and joy? Matthew Greiner is one of hundreds of athletes sharing their unfiltered answers. Follow the journey!
