Olympian Andrew Blaser talks painted nails, facial hair & partying at Marilyn Monroe’s pad in Palm Springs

Andrew Blaser fell into skeleton by accident. The out Olympian was a standout track star in high school and college, and was determined to continue his athletic career.

With a long-held dream of competing in the Olympics, Blaser started bobsledding, but eventually settled on skeleton — a little-known extreme sport where competitors ride a small sled down an ice track headfirst at roughly 80 MPH.

Blaser says the sport’s intensity brought him mental clarity, especially as he was figuring out his sexuality.

“Skeleton allowed me that freedom for two minutes a day, those became the most valuable two minutes a day for me to get me through some stuff,” he 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. 

But really bad ones: Altenberg, 2020 World Championships. I crashed pretty aggressively, and had a concussion going right into COVID, so I thought that was the end of my career. I still have some memory things that feel a little wonky. I was a couple feet in the air, and I don’t even have a time for it. I just have a dash on the time sheet. I’ve got some good bruises. 

There’s also “thunderbird.” We call it getting “thunder f*cked.” It’s actually the fastest part of the track. We’re going upwards of 90 miles per hour into that corner, and then it’s a full 180 degrees, and you take two really big oscillations, and most of the time you come out and just take a huge hit on the right side. There’s a couple of those ones that get you. I’ve never gone backwards, luckily. That’s always terrifying to see. In all my time on the sled, I’ve only lost my sled once, and that was in Winterberg across the finish line. 

If you’re not a thrill seeker, what’s appealing to you about skeleton?

I get that a lot. I don’t know! I started with bobsled, I thought it was a natural transition. Back when I was 10 years old, I wanted to go to the Olympics, and thought it was going to be bobsled. But it wasn’t bobsled. I didn’t really fit the mold for bobsled at all, and I really liked being more in control. When I look at everything, I don’t bridge jump. A lot of that is I hate heights, I hate them! 

It’s not something I get really excited on, adrenaline rushes. I think now, spending as much time as I have on a sled, it’s funny, because I don’t get the adrenaline rushes anymore that I would normally have. Like, I’ll hydro-plane driving my car somewhere, and it’s like, “Oh well.” I went skiing for the first time, and somebody told me, “It’s so fun! It’s such a rush!,” and I’m like, “I don’t really feel the rush.” It might just be sort of a subconscious training of when you’re actually in danger. I feel like my nervous systems are no longer fight or flight. They’re more like, “Eh.” 

You often painted your nails while competing. What was your favorite color?

I really like blue! I did a lot of shiny ones.

I think with painting my nails, it was some way to feel more connected with myself in bigger moments. There’s a lot of rules around skeleton, there’s a lot of things that are out of your control. It sounds kind of weird, but it was just something I could control. I could always control what color my nails were. It sounds like a small thing, but it was so grounding. It was like, “I’m going to World Championships, and we’re going to go with this color this week.” I would just travel with them. It’s not what you would expect in that sport.

You would also wear snakeskin suits. What’s the story behind those?

OK, this is kind of my favorite!

Kendall Wesenberg, she was on the 2018 team in South Korea, and she is also a member of the LGBTQ community. We started sliding skeleton together in Park City, and I showed up, and had no idea what I was getting into. So I showed up, made it down, but I had shown up in jeans. So I stopped on Route 21, I went to the first store I saw, and Route 21 had this glitter, snakeskin spandex, and I slid in them for the entire weekend. I thought it was hilarious. I was like, “Here we go! I’ve got these now!” So I slid them on, and Kendall started calling me “ice snake.” 

I also have snakes. I have a ball python, his name is “Snake Gyllenhaal.” It’s funny you would ask me about fashion, because I have these big earrings. We’re staying in Marilyn Monroe’s house [for Palm Springs Pride], so I’ve got the ugly wigs. They’re referring to me as “Ugly Marilyn” because of my facial hair, and also because I’m ugly! 

What are you looking forward to doing the most in retirement?

I’m looking forward to finding the right career move, and just settling in. I know how difficult trying to find any form of interpersonal relationships are when we’re disappearing for six months out of the year, so I want to be able to explore some of those things. But even just things like this. I came down to this trip last year for only two days. I went to Whistler, did two runs on my sled, came down for my friend’s birthday, and went flew back to Whistler. It was just the fastest little trip. So to be able to take in those things, and really get my life started.

One of those things that makes it kind of weird is, I’m 34 and applying for entry-level jobs. When other people hit that point, they’ve been in their job for 10 years and are like, “I’m ready for something new.” I’m just like, “I want to pay off my credit card!”

I’m not in a position to say “no” to things I’m intrigued by, whereas I used to have to say “no.” I can actually take it, and run with it now.