ZAGREB, CROATIA — Sunday I felt like that American hurdler in the Beijing Olympics who let a gold medal slip through her fingers.
Maybe you remember what happened to LoLo Jones, who had an overwhelming lead in the 100-meter hurdles until she clipped the next-to-last hurdle, stumbled and ultimately finished seventh.
In Sunday’s slalom I had the fastest first run and had a substantial lead late in the second run when I went off the course five gates from the finish. Instead of getting my second slalom win this season — and fourth podium in five slalom races — I walked away with nothing.
It was so close. I felt like everything was going well, I trained really well and I had a great first run. Being so close to the finish line, essentially having the win, and having it vanish so quickly was really tough to take.
I could see everyone celebrating in the finish when I went out. It was terrible.
There was one final hairpin (two vertical gates placed close together) going into the finish and I went a little too straight. It was really icy on the bottom, I got my weight a little in the backseat and my skis just slipped out from underneath me. My race was over in a second.
Slalom isn’t like downhill, where you have a good game plan, you execute it in one run, you’re done and you celebrate. It’s a totally different experience in slalom and I’m just getting used to it, at least in the sense of being a regular contender.
In the first slalom of the season in Levi, Finland, I won the first run and was able to win the race, but it’s not easy. If you win the first run, you race last (30th) in the second run, and sometimes the course doesn’t hold up so you have to fight the worst ruts.
You put all that effort into it, you work really hard, the first run goes really well, your second run is going well, you pretty much have it in the bag and then it’s over because of one small mistake.
It’s a fine line between being a hero and getting a DNF (did not finish). You have to dance on that line to even be close to the top three, but it’s the risk you have to be willing to take if you want to be fast. Sometimes when you’re risking that much, you DNF.
World Cup overall champion Lindsey Vonn, a product of Ski Club Vail, reports regularly from the World Cup tour in collaboration with Denver Post ski writer John Meyer. She leads the World Cup standings for this season.
