Despite a run of injuries, Lindsey Vonn still loves what she does.
Despite a run of injuries, skier says she hasn’t lost her nerve: “I love going fast”
COPPER MOUNTAIN» For much of her career, American downhill legend Picabo Street loved racing in flat light. She knew whenever visibility was poor, her competitors would be defeated by their own fear, improving her chances of winning.
But as her final Olympics approached in 2002, Street conceded she had lost the advantage of fearlessness because of a horrifying crash in 1998 that shredded a knee and fractured a femur, costing her two seasons away from the sport. Flat light no longer was her friend. It scared her, too.
Vail’s Lindsey Vonn has had a run of bad injuries over the past five seasons, one of which prevented her from competing in the 2014 Sochi Olympics. But as she eyes what is likely to be her final Olympics at age 33, she says she hasn’t lost her nerve.
“I feel like flat light and bad weather is an opportunity because you can just see the other girls mentally wilt a little bit,” Vonn said here recently while icing the right knee she blew out in February 2013 and reinjured here nine months later. “I still don’t have that fear. Maybe if it’s flat light in a downhill training run or if it’s my first run training GS (giant slalom), I’m going to take it easy if the conditions aren’t great, but it doesn’t scare me. I don’t back off. I don’t adjust my skiing because I can’t see (well). I still stick my nose in there.”
She still loves what she does, too. That was apparent from the way she attacked a downhill training session here last Wednesday when speeds topped 70 mph.
“I love going fast, I love the competition, I love being on the mountain first thing in the morning, seeing the sunrise and being out there and having that freedom to go as fast as you want to go,” Vonn said. “I love what I do, and I don’t want to stop doing it.”
Breaking Ingemar Stenmark’s record for career World Cup wins (86) remains a goal. Standing at 77, she could pass him this season, but for now World Cup success is second in priority to the Olympics. She still grieves missing the 2014 Sochi Games and can’t wait for the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, where she plans to race downhill, super-g, the combined and giant slalom.
“I am very, very, very, very excited,” Vonn said. “I was very disappointed and devastated, frustrated, that I missed Sochi. I’ve been waiting for this for a long time, and I’m ready.”
Vonn broke an arm and suffered nerve damage in a training crash here a year ago, delaying the start of her season and depriving her of strength in that arm for the remainder of the season. She won only once but came close to winning more, finishing second in the season’s final three races. Two came on the Olympic course in South Korea, where she lost to Italy’s Sofia Goggia by less than a tenth of a second both days.
“As long as I’m healthy and I’m confident, I’ll be in a great position when I get to Pyeongchang,” Vonn said. “Of course, when I’m in the starting gate of any World Cup, I’m going to try to win. Once I got things going at the end of last season, I was right back where I left off, just a couple hundredths shy of a couple more wins, unfortunately. But my skiing is there.”
Yet danger is always lurking, especially in downhill. French racer David Poisson was killed while training downhill last week at the Nakiska resort in Canada.
“Everyone asks me, am I afraid after so many crashes? Do I take my foot off the gas pedal? While I am smarter and I try to manage my risk better than I have in the past, it’s still ski racing, as you saw with David,” Vonn said. “Literally anything can happen — you can die. You can try to manage risk as much as you want, but at the end of the day it’s a dangerous sport. I don’t think about it because that’s just a part of life, that’s a part of the game, and we all understand that. If you’re not willing to take the risk, you’re probably in the wrong sport.”
Vonn has won 11 or more World Cup races in four separate seasons, so she conceivably could catch Stenmark this season.
“It’s something I always think
about, but this season my focus is 100 percent on the Olympics. That’s why I’ve said I’m going to ski another season. I already put enough pressure on myself to reach that (Stenmark) goal anyway. I want to give myself a little bit more time to make sure I’m not stressed out about it and I’m really able to focus on getting to Pyeongchang healthy. Of course, I’m going to try to win, like I always do. It just is a little bit less stress. The Olympics, that’s plenty of stress already.”
She might even race beyond next season.
“As long as I’m still enjoying it and I don’t have to use too much duct tape to hold my body together, I’m good,” Vonn said.
“I’m for sure going to ski one more year after this season, but who knows? If my body feels good and I’m still enjoying it — which I imagine I will — then I’ll keep going.”