Santa Caterina, Italy – Nearly every great ski racer has to
squander a medal or two before figuring out how to start collecting
them. Lindsey Kildow is hoping the pain now is worth the payoff
later.
The talented 20-year-old from Vail finished fourth in women’s
downhill Sunday at the alpine world championships, missing a medal
by 0.23 of a second. Two days earlier she was fourth in the
combined, missing a medal by 0.2 of a second.
Finishing fourth at an event in which medals mean everything is
never easy, but Kildow was devastated.
“Tears can only speak for me,” Kildow said after taking a long
time to compose herself. “It’s the worst feeling ever. Two fourth
places it feels bad.”
Janica Kostelic of Croatia won the gold medal, 0.26 of a second
ahead of silver medalist Elena Fanchini of Italy. Renate Goetschl
of Austria claimed the bronze.
Older racers could have helped Kildow put her anguish in
perspective – if she had been in the mood for their advice. They
all acknowledge her potential.
“She shouldn’t be too much disappointed,” said Goetschl, 29, a
five-time world championships medalist and two-time Olympic
medalist. “She’s young. I’m sure she will make in the future a lot
of medals. This is the way you have to go, as a young girl. She
will celebrate in some years – next year, maybe, at the
Olympics.”
Sweden’s Anja Paerson won two medals at the 2001 world
championships when she was 19, but it was not her first world
championships. Paerson made her worlds debut two years earlier in
Vail.
“It’s hard to come into a world championships very young,” said
Paerson, who won the super-G here eight days ago but finished a
surprising seventh Sunday. “My first world championships, I went
out in both races. You have to learn by it. I think next time she’s
going to be much stronger. You have to learn by your own
mistakes.”
Kildow, who saw these world championships as a dress rehearsal for
the 2006 Turin Olympics, had a hard time finding consolation.
“I worked so hard for this,” Kildow said. “You don’t spend six
hours a day in the gym just to get fourth place. It’s something
I’ve been working really hard for the last two years. It’s
disappointing for me. I may be young, but my goal was to be world
champion this year. Maybe my time is next year.”
Kildow said she felt fine in the starting gate Sunday.
“I felt like I always did,” Kildow said. “I was aggressive. I
knew my plan, I knew what to do. I think I skied better than I have
been skiing, and I still didn’t win. That’s really frustrating for
me. I kind of have to go back to the drawing board and figure out
what I’m doing wrong, what it’s going to take to win at the
Olympics. Obviously it’s going to be more than what I initially
anticipated.
“I skied the way I’ve always been skiing and I’ve been getting
podiums all season long. (Sunday) I didn’t – the one day I needed
to. (Sunday) was the one.”
Kildow made one noticeable mistake, getting bounced off line on a
side-hill traverse near the end of her run. That forced her to jam
her edges to get back on line, costing her speed entering a flat
section below.
“You’ve got to remember she’s 20 years old,” said Bill Marolt,
chief executive of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association.
“Sometimes you get two-tenths and sometimes you don’t. If you look at her career and the
progress she’s made, and you look at what she’s done this year on
the World Cup, this is a world-class competitor. She’s a great kid,
and she’s going to get there.”
Kildow’s ski supplier, Rossignol, is counting on that. Rossignol
executives say they believe she could become the next Bode Miller.
Today Miller is a five-time world championships medalist, but he
finished eighth, 18th and 26th at his first world championships
(Vail 1999) when he was 21. At the 2001 championships he crashed
and blew out a knee.
“She is a very talented girl for the future,” said Francois
Sedan, Rossignol race director. “We are building up something
around her. She’s everybody’s best stepdaughter. She has power and
determination. We’re going to bet on this for the future.”
John Meyer can be reached at 303-820-1616 or
jmeyer@denverpost.com.
