WHISTLER, BRITISH COLUMBIA — Lindsey Vonn’s husband, Thomas Vonn, spoke to The Denver Post during a weather delay at today’s women’s downhill training run. Vonn was set to go No. 15 in the training run, which was interrupted by fog and intermittent snow.
Q. So you gave Lindsey painkillers and numbed the spot of her shin injury with a topical analgesic. Then she did a warm-up run this morning before the training run. How did that go?
A. I followed behind her, and I could see she was skiing OK. She could roll up (on edge) the way she wanted. And the warm-up course was pretty choppy, so it was a good test. That put a smile on my face right away. Then I saw her at the bottom, she was obviously in pain, but smiling through it, like, ‘OK, we can work with this.’
Is it perfect, or even close to it? No. Free skiing down a warm-up trail is entirely different than (racing). And this is not an easy course.
Q. You said this is the worst course in the world for her injury. Why?
A. It’s just extremely technical on the top. It’s not like a cruising course where you can link up nice turns. You have to be scrambling and scrappy and on it the whole way down. There’s no cruising section. There’s no flats or medium pitch.
You have to scramble on this course, and anytime you have to scramble, it’s a different intensity level. It’s a challenging course, it’s an Olympic course.
Q. We could have some races postponed here, adding extra time for Lindsey to heal. Would a day or two make a big difference for her?
A. Absolutely. I know it’s not the popular thing to say, but I’ve heard a lot about the “Whistler weather,” and we’d welcome that right now. Not to rain on the parade, but a couple days could be very big for Lindsey, for sure.
Q. Has there been any talk about skipping Sunday’s super-combined to maximize healing before Wednesday’s downhill?
A. We talked about it. We have to see how this training run feels. It’s a day to day thing. It’s not something we’re going to strategically say, “Bail on the super-combined and start on the downhill.” Every day we’re going to go up and try it, and then make a decision.
Q. Andy Mill famously numbed a similar injury in the snow at the 1976 Olympics and finished sixth. Do you guys know that story, and have you thought about that?
A. That could work, and we’ll try it if we have to.
