Ski Club Vail’s Lindsey Kildow, a four-event racer on the U.S. Ski Team, reports regularly from the World Cup tour in collaboration with Denver Post ski writer John Meyer.
Altenmarkt-Zauchensee, Austria – We had a really exciting achievement Sunday when we took three of the top four places in a super-combined race. Julia Mancuso won, I was second and Resi Stiegler was fourth – the first time American women have done that in a World Cup race.
In the downhill portion of the race, Julia was first, I was second and Resi was 14th. When I came through the finish of the slalom in first place (Julia had yet to run), it was guaranteed there would be two Americans on the podium, either me and Resi or Julia and me. Only Julia could knock Resi off the podium, and she did, but Resi wound up only two-tenths of a second behind third-place finisher Marlies Schild of Austria.
It’s really cool how the Austrians have accepted us. It’s probably because Resi’s father, Pepi, is a former Olympic medalist for Austria and because I speak German. Usually when the Austrians nearly get shut out of the podium at a race in Austria, they’re not too happy, but they were really excited by how well we did.
Resi is a free spirit. She used to wear fake tiger ears on her helmet, and she has worn Christmas lights when she races. She’s wild-and-crazy Resi. It’s good for me to have her around, because sometimes I get too stressed out. She helps me stay positive and have fun. I hope she learns something from me, too.
Resi has skied really well the past two years, consistently in the top 10 in slalom. This year she has been coming on really strong, getting top fives and getting really close to being on the podium a few times. She has been getting a lot better in the speed events, even though she hasn’t trained that much in those events. She’s starting to score points in downhill, which is great. In the combined, she can be really strong.
I was really happy with my finish, especially after crashing in the downhill Saturday. The crash was disappointing, and my confidence was a little low.
The course was really icy. I knew it would be, but I slipped and fell. Normally when you’re going fast, you try to stay as balanced as you can. Maybe I got a little inside and my weight wasn’t completely on my outside ski, causing me to slip.
But I was really happy with Sunday’s race, especially to get through the slalom, because I haven’t been finishing slaloms lately. To finish and do it with a fast run was really satisfying.
