ARE, Sweden-
It wasn’t easy for Lindsey Kildow to watch teammate Julia Mancuso win Olympic gold last year after her own medal chances were demolished by a horrific crash. It also was frustrating to see Mancuso collect a pair of bronze medals at the last world championships while Kildow kept finishing fourth.
Kildow finally earned her own medal Tuesday, picking up a silver when she finished runner-up to Sweden’s Anja Paerson in the women’s world championship super-G.
“I felt she (Mancuso) was getting the name of a big-event racer and I was kind of out of the picture,” said Kildow, a seven-time winner on the World Cup. “I just think I proved to a lot of people I can do it, too.”
Bode Miller, the defending men’s champion, made a series of mistakes and finished 24th, 1 1/2 seconds behind the winner in the super-G as the championships finally opened after three days of weather postponements.
Kildow was hospitalized overnight after a horrific crash in downhill training at the Turin Games last year. She came back and competed in all four of her events—downhill, combined, super-G and slalom—but pain limited her performance and her best result was seventh in the super-G.
At the last worlds in Bormio in 2005, Kildow finished fourth in the downhill, combined and team event.
“I think people thought I couldn’t do it, like I was maybe too stressed out or too nervous or thought I had too much pressure,” Kildow said. “Like they were thinking ‘You need to start getting medals at the bigger games.'”
Such was her bad luck at big events, Kildow was convinced she was going to be knocked into third place by Austria’s Renate Goetschl, who has dominated the event on the World Cup circuit this season with victories in three of the five super-G races.
“It was huge,” U.S. coach Patrick Riml said. “She was always so close and she skied well but it was just not right for her the last couple of world championships and Olympics.”
Kildow has been avenging all kinds of personal affronts this season.
In San Sicario 10 days ago, she won a World Cup super-G on the same course where she had her Olympics accident.
“To be honest, all summer I was thinking about the Olympics and how I really wanted to get revenge and ski well this season and ski well at world champs, and I think all the hard work paid off,” Kildow said. “I’ve matured so much from the last two years. I’ve gone through a lot with world championships and Olympics.”
Mancuso, the Olympic giant slalom champion, finished sixth after soaring too far on the last big jump to land on the tails of her skis. Libby Ludlow was ninth.
“I was a little haggard up there. I don’t know why I always have to catch more air than everyone,” Mancuso said. “I wasn’t feeling 100 percent today but I really tried to push through it mentally. I feel like I did a good job. There was just those couple of places where I needed to be on it and I wasn’t.”
No U.S. woman has ever won the super-G at world championships. Kirsten Clark also finished second at St. Moritz, Switzerland, in 2003. The super-G was only included at worlds in 1987.
Italian Patrick Staudacher benefited from an early start number to win the men’s super-G, which was shortened because of heavy snow on the upper section. Austrian Fritz Strobl took silver and Switzerland’s Bruno Kernen was third.
Miller took a lot of risks on the upper section, then lost almost half a second when he hit a gate with his shoulder on the bottom part of the course.
“That’s how skiing goes. I risked it all and I lost,” Miller told local broadcasters before quickly leaving the finish area.
Miller had been a favorite. He’d won the super-G here at last year’s World Cup finals, and has won two of the three super-G races so far this World Cup season.
Steven Nyman was 12th for the top U.S. men’s result, but still covered his head with his hands upon seeing his time.
After downhill training Wednesday, the men race the super-combi Thursday and the women do so on Friday. The men’s downhill is on Saturday and the women’s on Sunday.
“I feel for the downhill especially I can just relax and ski and have fun and hopefully go one step higher on the podium,” Kildow said.
