She came agonizingly close to medals twice at the 2005 world championships. She suffered a brutal crash in downhill training at last year’s Olympics that doomed her medal hopes. Thus, Lindsey Kildow felt more relief than exhilaration Tuesday after claiming her first major championships medal.
Kildow took the silver medal in super-G at the world alpine championships in Are, Sweden, finishing .32 of a second behind gold-medal winner Anja Paerson of Sweden. Renate Goetschl of Austria took the bronze.
“It was definitely an awesome moment,” said Kildow, a graduate of Ski Club Vail. “It definitely lifted some weight off my shoulders and got that monkey out of there. It was just a really great day and I’m just so relieved to finally get a medal.”
Kildow, 22, has long been one of the U.S. Ski Team’s up-and-coming stars. At the 2005 worlds in Bormio, Italy, she finished fourth twice – in downhill and the combined – by a cumulative margin of .43 of a second.
Then came the horrendous crash at the Turin Games. Kildow won the Olympic Spirit award for coming back after the crash to finish eighth in downhill and seventh in super-G, despite injuries that left her stiff and sore, but the burden of external expectations haunted her last summer.
“It was definitely heavy,” Kildow said. “It wasn’t necessarily from myself. I felt like I was getting a lot of pressure from everyone else – ‘OK, you need to start getting some medals at the bigger (events).’ I felt like people thought I couldn’t do it, like I was too stressed out or too nervous or thought I had too much pressure. I’m just really happy to get that out of the way.”
It didn’t make things any easier when teammate Julia Mancuso, the same age as Kildow, won two medals at the Bormio championships and a gold medal in Turin. Mancuso was sixth Tuesday.
“I felt like she was getting the name to be a big-event racer and I was kind of out of that picture,” Kildow said. “I had some bad luck. I was fourth twice in Bormio, and that was my first world championships, so I didn’t think it was that bad. I think I’ve proved to a lot of people that I can do it, too.”
Kildow said she has the maturity to be herself at major championships.
“The world championships and Olympics are a totally different environment,” Kildow said. “You’ve got so many distractions, and the more times you do it, the easier it becomes. It’s easier to stay within yourself and stay focused instead of being in awe of the whole situation.”
Kildow figures to be more relaxed for the rest of the championships because she finally has that medal.
“I feel like the pressure of having to do something is gone, and now I think I’m going to be a little more relaxed, a little more confident,” Kildow said. “I think that’s going to help a lot, especially for the downhill. I’ve always known I could do it. It’s just a relief to have it be over with.”
In the men’s super-G, which had been postponed because of weather, American Bode Miller hit a gate with his shoulder and finished 24th, 1.34 seconds behind winner Patrick Staudacher of Italy.
