WHISTLER, British Columbia — There was something about the way Lindsey Vonn’s legs spread-eagled in the blink of an eye, the way she was hurled into the air at 50 to 60 mph and landed on her back, that made her fellow ski racers gasp.
When replays of her sickening crash in downhill training at the 2006 Olympics were shown on a big screen in the finish area, some turned away, wincing. Most worried she was seriously injured, perhaps even paralyzed.
While rescue crews rushed to the scene and a helicopter was summoned to evacuate her, Vonn lay on the snow wondering if her back was broken.
“I had excruciating pain in my lower back,” Vonn said in a recent interview. “I could move my legs, but at the same time I couldn’t, because it hurt my back so much. It was the type of pain I was getting, and where the pain was, that made me believe I had broken my back — or at least had some type of serious trauma.”
Danger is the essence of downhill, the reason racers are drawn to it, the reason it is widely considered the marquee event of the Winter Olympics. Speeds reached the mid-70s in the men’s downhill training run here Thursday and could be faster in the men’s downhill race today.
Downhill also involves jumps well in excess of 100 feet — imagine driving your car off an embankment at 70 mph and trying to land it with the wheels down — and difficult high- speed turns on icy, often bumpy “snow” that can be as hard and slick as your bathtub.
Austrian superstar Hermann Maier is remembered for his sensational crash at the 1998 Nagano Olympics, when he careened into the air upside down, landed on his head and tumbled four times. Two days later, he won a gold medal in ski racing’s second-fastest event, the super-G.
Antoine Deneriaz of France, who won the men’s downhill in the 2006 Games, crashed badly a month later at the World Cup finals and retired early the following season, defeated by fear.
Canadian Todd Brooker, who will do commentary here for NBC, had a crash so scary in 1987 at Kitzbuehel, Austria, that his wife feared for his life. He never raced again.
On the U.S. Ski Team, young Andrew Weibrecht of Lake Placid, N.Y., is known for the wild chances he takes, but he is not fearless.
“I never feel 100 percent comfortable, standing in the start, because even on the tamest of courses you’re still going 80 mph, and bad things can happen really quickly at those speeds,” said Weibrecht, 24. “But that’s kind of the coolest thing for me, standing in the start, always being nervous, then kicking out and feeling that sense of calm. All that nervous energy gets transferred into focus and determination to execute the plan.”
Fear is a funny thing for downhillers. Most of them have a fighter-pilot mentality and are drawn to downhill because they like to scare themselves. They want to feel that knot in the stomach.
Others try to ignore fear, or use it to their advantage.
“Honestly, the only fear I ever have is the fear of failure,” said Vonn, who has won five of the six World Cup downhills this season. “I’m never afraid of downhill. Some people say, ‘It’s because you’ve never been (seriously) injured.’ But I’ve had a lot of really bad crashes. It’s part of the sport.”
Picabo Street was fearless for much of her career too, but she was never the same after a crash in 1998 that fractured a femur and blew out the knee in her other leg. Before that crash, fear was an advantage Street used against the field. After the accident, it became her opponent.
Street envies Vonn now.
“She’s just in it with the blinders on right now, just going for it,” Street said. “I say, ‘Charge, girl, go as long as you can like that.’ “
Vonn, who is battling a shin injury, said she can tell when her competitors are afraid, and she is quite happy to use it to her advantage.
“Whenever the weather is bad, whenever the conditions get bumpy or icy, a lot of people back off and don’t ski nearly as aggressively,” Vonn said. “That’s an advantage for me, because I know even before I go out of the starting gate, I have that on my side. That makes me even more relaxed and gives me more confidence.”
Vonn was flown to a hospital in Turin after her accident at the 2006 Olympics. Two days later, in the downhill race, she finished eighth.
Four years later, she is the queen of the event, with two World Cup downhill titles and a gold medal at last year’s world championships.
“I think it’s part of my nature, it’s part of who I am,” Vonn said. “Thankfully, I haven’t had any major injuries, so I can’t say if I get injured whether it will change, but at this point I love downhill. I love going fast. I don’t want to go slower, I’m not afraid to go fast. I’m actually itching to go faster.”
John Meyer: 303-954-1616 or jmeyer@denverpost.com
