“It was about to be just what I wanted in life,” she said. “I was so happy and I was doing so well in track.”

She had to take the next flight back home, or essentially be stuck overseas with the border closing.

She, like many, turned to social media — predominately TikTok — as a way to have fun during that time. But Brzozowski was still searching for a bigger purpose. Her end goal was always to represent Team USA and to compete at the highest level possible. That’s when she turned to bobsled.

Brzozowski, 27, is now an Olympic hopeful competing on the United States women’s bobsled team. Through her social media accounts, she’s documented her entire journey into a sliding sport.

She’s garnered more than 100 thousand followers on TikTok, and on Instagram she has more than 59,000 followers. Her videos range from her explaining the little details about being a bobsled athlete, or showing off a more personal side, such as her truck breaking down in Lake Placid. Her most viewed TikTok has more than 10 million views.

Brzozwski, of Wyckoff, New Jersey, even has her own little community of followers that call her “Zozzy” — a play on her last name. Her followers even send her fan mail to her room at the Olympic and Paralympic Training Center in Lake Placid. Her intentions were never to build a following, but rather to showcase her journey for her own sake.

“I just post to see my progress (in bobsled),” she said. “It’s so easy to come to a sport and get to the line, and be like ‘I don’t think I worked hard enough this week,’ and you just forget all the hard work it took to just get to that moment, so being able to see it visually on a TikTok platform or even Instagram, it’s so powerful to revisit those feelings.”

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Influencer era

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It’s no secret that Olympic, or in Brzozowski’s case, potential Olympic athletes have started to use social media for their benefit. Athletes have used TikTok and Instagram to help generate revenue to fund their journey, as well as bringing in new viewers to somewhat niche sports.

During the 2024 Olympic Summer Games in Paris, France, American athletes such as gymnast Fred Richard to rugby star Ilona Maher, of Vermont, blew up on social media, gaining thousands of followers.

Maher in particular has ammssed nearly 4 million viewers on Instagram. Her videos aren’t hyperfocused on rugby per se, but rather about body image positivity. Brzozowski actually reached out to Maher around 2022.

“I was like, ‘Can you teach me a few things? I’m trying to be a voice for my sport like you are,’” she said. “I actually have her phone number and she gave me some of the best advice ever back in the day, just knowing that she had made it is definitely inspiring for other athletes like me to try to uphold a strong legacy, be a good role model to people — especially young women.”

Brzozowski admits her content isn’t exactly like Maher’s. She enjoys teaching others more about her sports and her underdog journey. Maher’s content has a more comedic aspect to it.

Brzozowski also loves going live on social media because it’s a great way for her to interact with her community. TikTok live is also how she got her signature cowboy hat.

She said the hat fits well with the theme of bobsled, which is riding a dangerous vehicle.

“One of the first things a fan ever mailed to me was a cowboy hat,” Brzozowski said. “The cowboy hat literally came right before media day. So I was like, ‘I’m going to wear this because it screams USA, and I’m proud to wear the stars and stripes.’”

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Underdog

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Ever since Brzozowski joined the sport, her dream has been to compete at the Olympics, but she knows its not a guarantee. She said her followers, who have been supporting her for quite some time now, are one of the biggest reasons why she continues to work hard.

“I always say that if I never make an Olympic team, those are the moments that make this whole process so worth it,” she said. “Because I’m learning about a whole new fanbase who love not only sport, but women in sport and bobsledding.”

Brzozowski said she’s never been the best athlete, and when things have seemed to go well for her, something happens, but it’s what makes her a stronger competitor.

Just last season, her journey took its biggest step when she finally made it on the International Bobsled and Skeleton Federation’s World Cup and Europe Cup circuit last season. But it didn’t last long.

After a practice run in Innsbruck, Brzozowski rolled her ankle, broke her foot in two spots and partially tore a ligament.

“It was weird fracture because it was in the calcaneus and in the talus, but with those breaks, you can kind of walk on your heel for a while and not really know it’s broken,” she said. “That’s exactly what happened to me.”

She spent a few days in Europe, thinking she just had a sprained ankle.

“(Then) I was like, I can’t even push off my foot. That’s basically when my season was over, but I wouldn’t take it as a no, so I stayed three extra weeks to try and learn as much as I could off the ice. We made the call four days before the biggest race of my career to go home.”

Things only got worse as she suffered blood clots due to the high altitude on the plane. It effectively forced her rehab to last nearly eight months. She documented her whole journey on TikTok.

“So when I got hurt, I was just non-stop flooded with the most motivational speeches, from all of these people that I didn’t even know we’re rooting for me, commenting and reaching out,” she said.

Brzozowski has since recovered, and about two weeks ago she just started pushing the sled again at the indoor push start facility at Mount Van Hoevenberg. Things have been going well for her so far, as she’s getting back into season form. She’s just glad she didn’t get hurt during an Olympic year.

“I learned a lot from the injury and definitely made my peace with it,” she said. “Definitely, something good to have under my belt going into this year, just trying to be ready wherever the team needs me.”