BAD KLEINKIRCHHEIM, austria — I got some sort of stomach bug before last Tuesday’s slalom in Zagreb, Croatia, that hit me really hard and affected me in three races.
Tuesday morning I just felt awful. I tried to eat some breakfast but started vomiting and could barely get up, felt super dizzy.
My team left me in the hotel, and I didn’t think I was going to race, but I started to feel a little better so I went up to the hill and gave it a try. The first run was not good (24th), but I felt a little better second run (second fastest) and ended up having a pretty solid result for me in slalom — ninth.
That first run, I literally got out of bed, got into the car, went straight to the race — without any course inspection or warm-up — and got in the starting gate. I’ve never done that before.
I’ve only missed one race because of being sick, and that was like eight years ago. I wanted to try. And that ninth-place result got me into the top 15 of the slalom start list for the rest of the season as a result.
Missing inspection is a major disadvantage. Before every race, I inspect every gate so I can decide how I will attack the course. In that first run I had to race blind. I watched some of the girls who went before me on TV, but it was so foggy that you could hardly see anything, so I had no idea what the course looked like.
The second run, when I actually got an inspection and I was feeling a little better, I skied a lot better.
Over the next three days, I wasn’t able to eat anything. I pretty much was on a soup-and-bread diet, that and saltines. That’s not exactly food that gives you a lot of energy for racing.
So I was still weak over the weekend in Bad Kleinkirchheim, Austria, finishing fourth a downhill and 18th in a super-G. I just didn’t have the strength and the power for a course that was really technical and demanding. I just hope I can get healthy again for this weekend, feel like I can ski the way I want, and try to win some races.
Vail’s Lindsey Vonn, a three-time World Cup overall winner and Olympic downhill champion, reports regularly in collaboration with Denver Post ski writer John Meyer
