Vail’s Lindsey Vonn, a three-time World Cup overall champion and Olympic downhill gold medalist, reports regularly in collaboration with Denver Post ski writer John Meyer.
VAL D’ISERE, France — First of all, I’m really honored to win The Associated Press female athlete of the year award. I feel so lucky to be the first skier to win athlete of the year, male or female. It’s just been a great year. To win the Olympic gold medal and now this, it just reaffirms dreams can come true if you keep working hard.
I won both of my races this weekend, and Ted Ligety won a giant slalom on Sunday in Alta Badia, Italy. It’s so cool that we both won on the same day. He took the overall lead, as did I. It was a great day for American skiing.
I watched Ted’s second run, and he’s skiing so well right now. It’s amazing to watch him.
I was really happy with Saturday’s downhill. I made a really big mistake at the top of the course but was able to make up the time at the bottom.
In the super-combined Sunday, conditions were really bad for later numbers (in the start order), but I tried to make the best of it. The super-G wasn’t a perfect run, but it was solid and I won it, giving me a good chance in the slalom.
I skied a little bit conservatively on the top in the slalom, because it was getting somewhat rutty in soft snow conditions. But on the bottom, I let it go and was able to make up some time.
We have a slalom today in Courchevel, France, and then we break for Christmas. As usual, I will go to Maria Riesch’s home in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, to spend Christmas with her and her family before resuming the World Cup a week from today.
It’s difficult, because we’re good friends and we’re fighting for the overall title for the fourth year in a row, but when we go to her house for Christmas we put racing aside and we just have a great time. We spend time kind of like a family. We have traditional German meals and exchange presents. We don’t talk much about skiing. It’s about taking some time off and enjoying the holidays.
Duo has winning down to an art
When Lindsey Vonn won a super-G at Lake Louise, Alberta, and Ted Ligety won a giant slalom at Beaver Creek on Dec. 5, it was the first time in four years that an American woman and man won World Cup races on the same day.
It took them only two weeks to do it again. Vonn won a super-combined in Val d’Isere, France, on Sunday, and Ligety won his third giant slalom of the season.
Both racers took the lead in the World Cup overall standings.
