Vonn’s Olympic farewell cast in bronze
● American says medal is ‘dream come true’ after all she’s been through
Bronze felt like gold, she said, an admission, that at 33, the days of automatic conquest are over for Lindsey Vonn. It was enough for her after the disappointment of fourth in the Super G, that she was able to land on the podium in what she has trailed as her last Olympics.
Her body, she says, is withdrawing by increments if her heart is not. Yet, as gold medallist Sofia Goggia reminded the press legions in the mixed zone, Vonn is not cut from mortal cloth, setting out her proof in deferential tones as if she had taken bronze and Vonn the gold. “She has 81 World Cup wins, I’ve won four. Come on. Lindsey is the greatest skier, a great person and a great woman. Everyone is like bowing to Lindsey.”
The journey continues for now with her attempt on Ingemar Stenmark’s record of 86 World Cup wins and her desire to race against men. That might take two years to accomplish. If her rebuilt knees are not screaming stop then, who knows, the pull of Beijing might prove irresistible. However, the tears that welled here suggest she knows how this is playing out.
“It was tough to contemplate this being my last Olympic downhill,” said Vonn. “I struggled to try to keep the emotions together, but I left it all on the mountain like I said I would. I skied really well, but I think Sofia is untouchable today.
“If you think what’s happened over the last eight years (multiple surgeries) and what I’ve been through to get here, I gave it all and to come away with a medal is a dream come true. You’ve got to put things into perspective. Of course, I’d have loved a gold medal but, honestly, this is amazing and I’m so proud. I gave it all today, skied a great race. Sofia just skied better than I did.”
Vonn knew, she said, when she saw Super G silver medallist, Norway’s Ragnhild Mowinckel, pushing at the gate, her time would not survive the youthful assault. Mowinckel duly minted silver No 2, Norway’s sixth Alpine trinket of these games.
Vonn’s time of 1:39.69 was an honest account in the wake of Mowinckel and Goggia, who claimed Italy’s first downhill gold with a typically aggressive annihilation of the hill. “When I got here this morning and saw the sun coming up behind the hill, put my feet in the boots, I knew this was going to be my day,” Goggia said. “I felt good.
“I still don’t realise I’m first. I was really focused, I moved like a samurai. Usually, I’m really chaotic but I wanted to take in every little detail, every particular in the morning. I believed in myself – and then what counts, counts. I did not think about Lindsey or the other girls, just me.”
Pity her historic moment was not witnessed by more people. The Jeongseon course met all the technical requirements and pleased the athletes, but the Winter Olympics has to be careful about its migration around the globe. There is something lost when events like this are removed from their essential setting. Alpine skiing is utterly irrelevant in South Korea. Without the ability to make snow, the course would be a brownfield site. It is carved at the top of a remote valley where nobody lives and cows don’t roam. There is nil infrastructure to support skiing in this region, not a house, not a shop, not a restaurant in sight, and nil desire from the locals to pursue the sport.
The atmosphere shortfall is not felt by observers appropriating the spectacle via broadcast devices, but at the bottom of the hill the Winter Olympic blue riband event was as far removed from its natural habitat as a panda in London Zoo. This is not a loss leader for the sport in the hope of growing the game. It is an IOC cash grab taking advantage of a nation willing to pay the fantastic price on the ticket for a two-week geo-political promo in the global village.
The people of South Korea do not care about the outcome between Goggia, Mowinckel, Vonn and co in the same way they do in Kitzbuhel, Wengen and Vail. Why should they? These games are simply the context for the projection of the greater glory of Korea. If the IOC insist on selling the games to the highest bidder at the expense of authenticity maybe it’s time to split the party in two, taking the Alpine events to places where the sport is culturally relevant and let the indoor ice events follow the money.
Since skiers like Vonn were too far removed from the centre of things here to experience the Olympic Village, they might as well have been doing their thing in the Rockies or the Alps in front of 50,000 cowbell ringers instead of racing before an audience made up largely of volunteers, family members and media. There were just enough American flags in the crowd to clothe Vonn in warmth as she made her way off the mountain. “You’re our Beyonce” shouted one well-wisher holding a placard that read “Lindsey is Vonnderful”. Okay, the Vonn super fan will never make a headliner writer, but the sentiment was on the money.