Lindsey Kildow’s career points constantly in one direction: up. On the other hand, the 21-year-old US skiing star is getting down faster in more and more disciplines.
Her actual birthday is October 18. But 21-year-old Lindsey Kildow, from St. Paul, Minnesota, celebrates her athletic birthday on December 3. This is the day in 2004 on which she captured her first World Cup victory, in Lake Louise. It’s also the day on which she walked away with her second World Cup victory a year later: same day, same place, same discipline.
Although it would have been tempting to jokingly call her a “one-day wonder,” nothing could have been further from the truth: it was already clear that she was one of the world’s top downhill skiers. It was equally clear that the next victory was only a question of time. The question was answered precisely two weeks after the second Lake Louise victory: on December 17 Lindsey was the fastest skier down the piste in Val d’Isere, giving her win number two in her third race of the season.
Lindsey Kildow is unusual in many respects. In addition to the fast disciplines, she also competes in the giant slalom (in which she is improving at an unusually fast pace), she is unusually pretty (in the US she’s compared to a Ralph Lauren model), she is an unusually hard worker (“Lindsey trains harder than all the rest,” says Alexander Hödlmoser, coach of the US speed group), and she makes unusual decisions. Like this one: as the prize for her downhill victory in Val d’Isere, Lindsey was presented with a cow. Since a world-class skier is generally not the ideal person to raise and care for what is a relatively immobile animal, the “medal” is traditionally sold to a local farmer for around 1,000 euros. Lindsey, however, returned the check and kept the cow. This could have had something to do with the fact that the cow was named “Olympia”.
But that is not all that’s unusual about Lindsey Kildow’s life. Her great love for skiing, for example, is evident even off the slopes. One can even hear it. The American skier is taking crash courses in German – simply because, due to her profession, she is spending more and more time in German-speaking environments. Some of her biggest rivals speak German – the Germans, the Austrians – and her best friend on the World Cup circuit is the (presently injured) German Maria Riesch. Lindsey loves “Kaiserschmarrn,” a sweet Austrian specialty that is something of a national dish. And her present domicile is also found in Austria now, in Tirol’s Kirchberg (her cow “Olympia” is kept at a neighboring farm): “I have ideal training conditions right at my doorstep here – and for all disciplines, which is especially important to me. I don’t see myself as a speed specialist. I want to be at the front of the pack in every discipline!” Depending on your perspective, one can interpret that as a promise or a threat.
