special to get 50 wins but even more special to
get to share that with your family.”
Things didn’t go so well for Vonn last year in the
Bavarian Alps. She pulled into town in her own
personal fog. A concussion had the defending
downhill champion feeling unlike herself. After
taking a downhill training run in her lose-fitting
outwear and saying that she felt like her mind
was a gate behind her body, Vonn somehow
managed to earn the silver medal.
“I put past races in the past really quickly,” said
Vonn. “I try to move on and think about how to
ski better the next day as quickly as possible. I
tried to forget about last year’s World Champi-
onships quickly, and this year I wanted to come
back and turn things around. I’m healthy and
skiing well and able to ski the course the way
I wanted to, and it felt good to be able to do
that.”
The way Vonn wanted to ski was extremely
exciting to watch. A few seconds after passing
the second interval timer 0.62 seconds behind
Swiss Nadja Kamer, Vonn made a mistake and
fell to her hip going into a steep section of the
course. “I lost my outside ski and went down
on my hip for a second,” she said. “I skied re-
ally well on the bottom; I knew that that mistake
had cost me some time and I and I really tried
to make up as much time as possible. I think I
gave the coaches a scare there. I make mis-
takes quite a few times in downhill and super G
but I just have to keep my composure and ski
the line that I inspected.”
Vonn masterfully balanced risk and control,
skiing the bottom section better than any other
racer and crossing the line 0.41 seconds ahead
of Kamer to become just the third woman in
World Cup history to reach 50 wins.
Vonn later told reporters that 50 wins was never her goal, nor is it cause to let up now. “When I
was a kid, I dreamed of winning an Olympic gold
medal and I wanted to ski the way people like
Alberto Tomba did,” said Vonn. “I would have
never dreamed that I would reach the success
that they reached in their careers. It takes a lot
of hard work to get this many wins, and it’s a
huge milestone in my career. I still have a lot of
years of racing in me.”
It’s been an interesting and unique season for
Vonn, starting with her first-ever World Cup giant slalom win at the opening race in Soelden,
Austria. A month later, she announced that she
would be splitting from Thomas Vonn, her husband of four years and her personal coach.
The next weekend she began a four-race winning streak that included a once-in-a-lifetime
rescheduled super G in Beaver Creek near
Vonn’s hometown of Vail. Vonn says her love
of the sport is fueling this season’s push for a
return to the overall title after she fell just three
points shy of her fourth consecutive overall
globe last season.
“I’ve always loved skiing and I’ve always
loved racing but I feel like this year it’s to the extreme,” said Vonn. “I am happy and relaxed on
the mountain; I’m not stressed out about many
things on the hill. I just wake up and I am excited to go skiing. When I’m in the starting gate
I’m not nervous at all. I know what I have to do
to ski well. I don’t second-guess myself; I just go
out there and do it — I enjoy it in a way I don’t
think I ever have in my career yet.”
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