Ski Club Vail’s Lindsey Kildow, a four-event racer on the U.S. Ski Team, will report regularly from the World Cup again this season in collaboration with Denver Post ski writer John Meyer. Kildow was considered a medal contender in multiple events at the 2006 Winter Olympics but had a frightening crash in downhill training and raced while impaired with injuries, finishing eighth in downhill and seventh in super-G.
I had a really good summer. I took four months off snow after the season, which I’ve never done before, but then when I went to summer training camps in New Zealand and Chile it only took me a day to get up to speed. I’m skiing better than I’ve ever skied, and that’s an understatement.
I had to take some time off recently because of a crash Oct. 17 while training super-G in Austria. It was a really weird crash. There were two pitches and the second pitch was glacial ice. They didn’t have much recent snow, so it was icy, then soft. I caught an edge and my knee hit my chin. I bit my tongue really hard, and I launched into the air and fell. I had a bone bruise on my knee.
It was gross because I was bleeding out of my mouth and my knee hurt really bad. It happened the day before my 22nd birthday. I spent my birthday in the hospital in Innsbruck, but I was happy I didn’t have any serious injuries. That was my birthday present.
I really hope to win a World Cup discipline title this season – super-G or downhill, or both. Then the world championships in Are, Sweden, are a big goal.
I just want to have good races in the world championships, which occur every other year in skiing. At the Olympics I had that crash, and the world championships before that in Bormio, Italy, I was really nervous and that affected my performances. Hopefully, I have all those things out of the way and I can get some good results in Are.
Being so banged up after the crash in downhill training at the Olympics prevented me from skiing my best, and that was tough to take, but a week after the Olympics I won a World Cup super-G in Norway. I was like, “I know I’m skiing well, this proves it, I should have won in Torino, I should have at least gotten a medal.” Obviously there was a reason things happened the way they did. I learned how to deal with my nerves and deal with the Olympics in a pressure situation. The Vancouver Olympics in 2010 will be my time, I guess.
Today we leave Colorado for Levi, Finland, for women’s and men’s slalom, then come right back here for races in Aspen on Thanksgiving weekend. I really like Levi, I just wish this week’s race didn’t come this time of year because it’s so far to go for one race. The Europeans always complain about being away from home for the two weeks they’re in America. Give me a break.
