WHISTLER, British Columbia — When I was growing up in Minnesota, I didn’t know which ski discipline best suited my abilities. All I was doing was slalom. I knew I had to move to Vail to be good at something besides slalom, so I did that when I was 11.
In retrospect, that was a big first step toward winning the World Cup downhill title.
It was a little bit of a hard transition because I had to make new friends in Vail, but the coaching staff was awesome. I had a good feeling right away for speed events — downhill and super-G — and I was never afraid.
We trained mostly super-G, with a couple of days of downhill each week. We would have Gold Peak closed off for us when we were training in the afternoon.
The top was flat, and then there were a couple of nice rolls. It was a little steep in the middle, and then it was pretty much flat at the bottom. The steeps weren’t too challenging, but it was the perfect start for me. I got up to speed, I got to glide a little bit, to make a couple of turns on the steeps — pretty much everything a junior racer needs to start downhill.
I really liked it. It was a totally different feeling to go up a chairlift and have about 20 different runs just off that one lift to go free skiing on your downhill skis, to tuck and let it rip, to do some jumps off the little rollers. I liked getting air, I liked going fast.
I was just horsing around and having fun. It wasn’t, “I’m training to be this great downhill skier.” It was just going out there and being allowed to go fast without someone telling you to slow down. It was awesome.
You can’t really teach someone to be a good glider. They either have that skill or they don’t. But having quite a bit of flat training at Vail allowed me to find and hone those skills.
I went to the Junior Olympics when I was 11 or 12. At that time, they would never let someone that young do downhill, but someone convinced them to let me do it. I think I got ninth in the downhill against 13- and 14-year-olds.
Everyone was totally surprised, but I was having so much fun. I realized I liked downhill a lot. I wanted to keep doing it, and I was pretty good at it.
Vail taught me I wasn’t afraid of speed. Today I can always find the fall line, and I’m always taking risks. I think that’s a reason I’ve been successful at downhill.
Lindsey Vonn, a former Ski Club Vail member who clinched the World Cup downhill title last Friday, reports regularly from the tour in collaboration with Denver Post ski writer John Meyer.
