San Sicario, Italy – Lindsey Kildow skied like one of the best downhillers in the world Wednesday, but she shuffled off the mountain like an arthritic old woman in need of a hip replacement.
Two days after a terrifying crash in downhill training, the Ski Club Vail racer threw herself down a bumpy 1.9- mile race course at speeds in excess of 60 mph to finish eighth in the Olympic women’s downhill, but she walked slowly and stiffly, the effects of her injuries showing in every painful step.
“I think she should be an inspiration to everybody,” said her mother, Linda. “She is just an amazing adult. She’s a great kid.”
Kildow, 21, didn’t think she did anything special by getting right back on the mountain that threw her. Welcome to the mind of a downhiller.
“I did what I had to do,” Kildow said. “I think anyone in my position would have done the same. It’s the Olympics. You’ve got to go. You can’t think twice about it.”
Austria’s Michaela Dorfmeister won the gold medal with a run so clean and dominating there was no need to look at the clock to know she was the winner. It was the first Olympic gold for Dorfmeister, who has accomplished just about everything else in ski racing. Switzerland’s Martina Schild took the silver and Sweden’s Anja Paerson the bronze.
Dorfmeister became the first Austrian woman to win an Olympic gold medal in downhill since Annemarie Moser- Proell in 1980.
“It is like a dream,” said Dorfmeister, 32. “I didn’t sleep for two nights because I was under so much pressure. But this morning I felt very relaxed, and when I took the lift to the start I said, ‘Today I’ll do it.”‘
Kildow was not the only racer who shook off a bad crash to race in pain. Defending champion Carole Montillet-Carles of France, whose crash Monday left her swollen face a mass of bruises and abrasions, finished 28th.
“You’ve got to suck it up, unless it’s a deal where you could seriously injure yourself,” Kildow said. “I mean, Montillet could barely see. She looks like somebody beat her with a bat.”
Kildow can’t remember much about her crash. She hasn’t seen a replay – she won’t watch one until after the Olympics – and doesn’t know why she crashed.
“I just remember being in my tuck when I went over the roll, and then all of a sudden I’m looking back up the hill over the two rolls I’d just gone over,” Kildow said. “Then I lost memory for about 10 minutes. It’s still a little blurry. I just remember screaming and my back being in an incredibly large amount of pain.”
The fear factor on the mountain Wednesday was heightened by flat light that made it difficult for racers to see the many bumps built into the course to make it more challenging.
“I just think it was hard to ski,” said American Julia Mancuso, who finished seventh. “The course was exactly the same, there were no surprises, but it was harder to see exactly where the rollers were.”
Kildow usually feels flat light and poor visibility work to her advantage because other racers find those conditions more intimidating, especially the ones who have had severe injuries.
Kildow never has been seriously hurt racing.
“I was pretty nervous in the start, but I believed in myself,” Kildow said. “I said, ‘Don’t think, just go, give it everything you have.’ I thought I skied pretty well. It was just over those rolls where I crashed, I was a little conservative.”
Kildow said her back was “extremely sore,” especially on the left side. She said she has burn marks on her back and buttocks.
“I was worried that my body wouldn’t be able to hold the forces, especially in the icy turns where it’s extremely bumpy,” Kildow said. “There were left-footed turns where my left butt was killing me and I was worried it wasn’t going to hold, but it did.”
She was medicated with mild anti-inflammatory pain relievers.
“You can’t really take much more,” Kildow said. “You can’t make your body numb so you can’t feel anything. You just have to take as much pain away as you can.”
