Ski Club Vail’s Lindsey Kildow, a five-event racer on the U.S. Ski Team, reports regularly from the tour for The Denver Post. She is second in the downhill standings, sixth overall.
St. Moritz, Switzerland – I was really sick the early part of last week. I watched far too much TV, especially the drama series “Without a Trace,” and that’s pretty much all I did.
Getting sick, especially at a big event like the Olympics or world championships, is something we all dread. I got sick about the same time last year and it didn’t go away for a while. This time I took a day completely off when I first felt sick and tried to rest as much as I could. I got over it relatively quickly.
There are things you can take to help your immune system, but you have to be careful that you’re not inadvertently taking something on the banned list. Every vitamin you take, even your basic Vitamin C, could cause a problem if it was manufactured with a machine that was also used to make a banned substance. The main thing is to eat healthy and make sure you’re well rested.
I was third Sunday in the new “super combined,” my third podium of the season after two downhill victories. I didn’t have a very good combined downhill run Sunday – I made a big mistake on the bottom and finished more than a second behind the winner – but I was fourth in the slalom run.
In a regular downhill on Saturday, I pretty much skied a flawless run except for a little mistake on the bottom and finished 17th. I watched video of the run with my coaches, and they said it was awesome. That gave me confidence for Sunday.
It was a little bumpy in the combined downhill on Sunday, and I didn’t ski as well as I did Saturday. But my slalom was really good. I was attacking the whole way. It was a nice course, really rhythmical and fast. I just stuck my skis down the fall line and tried to be as aggressive as I could.
Getting on the podium always gives you confidence. The combined is always hard because you have to go from downhill to slalom, the disciplines on the extreme ends of the spectrum. To know I’m making that transition well is a real positive, especially going into the Olympics.
