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. This will be her final installment this season.
For a few days after I partially tore the anterior cruciate ligament in my right knee Feb. 15, I clung to a shred of hope that I could heal fast enough to race the final speed events of the season, maybe win the super-G title or challenge for the overall World Cup crown. My knee was feeling good.
Then I went to see a doctor in Austria who told me the risk of tearing the ACL completely was very high if I raced. His opinion was that I shouldn’t take that chance.
I was shocked, disappointed and extremely sad. I didn’t want to end the season that way. I was bummed out, but then I just accepted it. I knew
I had to let the knee heal and get ready for next year.
I’m lucky the ACL wasn’t completely torn. A lot of people with torn ACLs never really come back as strong as they were before. Surgery is a big deal, and it just takes so long to recover from it, I didn’t want to risk that.
I really thought I had a chance to win the overall and the super-G title, but I’m still only 22. Having surgery would mean being out for six to eight months. This way I can come back even stronger next year.
I’m going to have another MRI next week in Vail to see how it’s healing. Then Dr. Bill Sterett will decide whether surgery is needed, but we think it will heal on its own.
I think I had a really good season. It was definitely a big step in the right direction from last year – I had 10 podiums, and the two silver medals at the world championships were really important so I could get that monkey off my back.
Last year I was really happy with six podiums. Ten this year is great, but I know if I wouldn’t have been injured I would have had a lot more.
I know I can do better. So from here on out, I’m resting until the doctor says I can start training, and then I’m going to train really hard.
I’m also going to work on getting some furniture for my new house in Park City, Utah, because when I go home I don’t even have a bed to sleep on. The house was finished in October, my fiancé and I have all of our clothing and belongings there, but we have been in Europe almost nonstop since then and we don’t have any furniture. When we get home, we’re going to be sleeping on an air mattress for a while.
