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.
TARVISIO, Italy — This past weekend was a really good one for me. I clinched the season title in super combined Friday, the downhill title Saturday and the super-G title Sunday.
I was most happy with my slalom run in the super combined. I’d had a good downhill run and I had a pretty good lead going into the slalom, but Maria Riesch was five points ahead of me in the super combined standings, and I knew I had to beat her if I wanted to win the title.
My slalom let me down a lot this year, and I finally was able to ski slalom the way I’ve been skiing in training, to put a slalom run together that got me a title.
I’ve won four straight downhill titles and three straight super-G titles. This was my second straight super combined season title, and I’m proud of winning it because it’s a really tough event, and the last two years I’ve struggled with my slalom.
Apart from my slalom form, another reason it’s a tough title to win is because there’s only three super combined races in the season. In the other disciplines, you have seven, eight or nine races, so you can make mistakes and still be in the running for the title. In super combined, if you make one mistake, you have no chance.
In the super combined slalom run Friday, the conditions were tough. The weather was really warm, so it was really slushy. I was able to put a top-three slalom run together, and that was something I haven’t been able to do in a long time.
I’ve had really good slalom results at times in my career, but recently I’ve struggled a lot. For me to win this title this year required me to really elevate my slalom to a place I haven’t been able to reach in a while.
In past years, I could get a nice cushion in the downhill or the super-G portion of the combined, which makes the slalom run easier. It wasn’t like that this year because Maria has gotten so fast in the speed events. It makes the margins less, so I have to put down a really good slalom run in order to challenge for the podium.
I really wanted that super combined title. I was hungry for it in the starting gate and I fought my way down. As my husband would say, it was a “scrappy” run. It wasn’t perfect, but it got the job done, and I was really proud I was able to pull it off.
