DOWNHILL TO THE TOP

A portrait on the overall World Cup winner: Tracing Lindsey Vonn's path from junior skiing mite in Minnesota to the best racing skier in the world.

“If you work hard, it will pay off in the end,” Lindsey Vonn says. It’s a philosophy of life which is connected with other basic rules that the athlete who is previously known as Lindsey Kildow has followed metaphorically and figuratively throughout her life: “When you fall down, just get up again.” In the meantime she has amended the philosophy with a footnote: If you fall, get up stronger, hungrier, more ambitious. “Set backs help you to concentrate,” she says. “When successes fall into your lap, you lose sight of your goals.”

Prodigy on skis

Born in 1984, Vonn had her earliest experiences on skis falling down and picking herself up in a state not especially known for mountains, Minnesota. But with a grandfather and a father who were competitive skiers, little Lindsey started carving the local hill at age three. “I began racing at seven, and by nine I was doing international events,” she remembers. Her talent as a small child proved so big that the whole family considered moving in order to make better training opportunities possible. Eventually her parents, brothers and sister all moved to Vail.

The youngster improved quickly. At age 14, she became the only female American ever to win Italy’s Trofeo Topolino contest – dubbed “Junior-Junior Worlds” – and her name was entered into the Golden Book of Champions alongside girls who had grown up to win the World Cup Overall title.

In her initial year of top-level competition, 15-year-old Lindsey took the podium at several NorAm events. Her first International Ski Federation (FIS) victory came in 2001; that same year she also captured a Super Series win, as well as the bronze in Combined at the U.S. National Championships. In the same season she raced in her first Slalom World Cup. In the Super G in Val d’Isere she won her first World Cup points coming 26th.

When Lindsey was named a member of the U.S. Olympic Ski Team in 2002, she was still under the radar, but a sixth-place finish in Combined put her on everyone’s screen. She focused all her energy into building speed and consistency. The effort paid off with two U.S. National Championships, plus numerous medals at the Junior World Championships and World Cup events.

Her progress continued in 2003, with a silver at the Junior World Championships, as well as a silver and a bronze at the U.S. Nationals. She continued to progress in 2003/04, winning two golds at the U.S. Championships, two medals at Junior Worlds, and making her first World Cup podium in Cortina d’Ampezzo.

The following season was even more exciting, as Lindsey captured her first victory in a World Cup race and attended her first World Championships. She logged 13 top-five finishes in World Cup and World Championship events, standing on the podium six times, ending the season ranked sixth overall, in the world. Determined to capitalize on the momentum as she headed into an Olympic year, Lindsey spent the summer training intensely in Oregon and Chile. The result? Better form than ever before.

Building speed

Lindsey’s momentum was building in the 2005/06 season. She dashed out of the gates in December to capture the victory in the Downhill events of Lake Louise, Canada and Val d’Isere, France.

The traditional award of this race in France is a cow, which she happily received. The cow is appropriately named Olympe, and Lindsey still keeps the pet on a farm near the U.S. Ski Team’s training base in Austria.

“Last time I went to the Olympics, I was basically there for the experience, and it was really fun,” Lindsey recalls. But 2006 was a different story. As she headed to Torino, she was a top hopeful for the Women’s U.S. Ski Team. Unfortunately, this would not be her time. During a practice run, Kildow had a crash, which sent her to hospital. She was shaken but released. Lindsey hadn’t come this far not to race. She finished 8th in Downhill, 7th in Super G, and 14th in the Slalom, despite the harrowing crash.

And there it was again, the attitude of never letting set backs get you down: “That happened for a reason,” she said. “It was a lost opportunity, but it gave me the fuel and motivation that I need.”

And she needed it: Lindsey crashed again in Austria, in October of 2006. “I had a bit of a bone bruise. It hasn’t totally cleared up, but it’s not preventing me from skiing,” she commented. Apparently not. She came back to notch a first in Downhill at Lake Louise (a place where she always seems to shine) with seconds in another Downhill and Super G. A victory at Lake Louise followed in the Val d’Isere Downhill, one in the San Sicario/Sestriere Super G and six other podiums. Two of the most valuable she celebrated in Are: At the World Championships Lindsey won two silvers, in Downhill and in the Super G. The season ended as usual with an injury from a fall. This time: a pulled tendon.

On top of the world (cup) in 2007/08

“Set-backs motivate me,” asserted Lindsey once more. And impressively proved this, dominating the speed disciplines in the 2007/08 season almost at will. Pushed by the Red Bull Athletes’ Special Projects into the best form of her life, Lindsey won the Super Combination in St. Anton and five downhill races. Of course the one in Lake Louise, but also the brutal test of courage in St. Anton and the classics in Cortina, Sestriere and Crans Montana. The series of victories not only garnered her the top rung in the downhill World Cup but also fulfilled her childhood dream: the victory in the Overall World Cup.

There's life without skis, too

Today Lindsey Vonn is the role model for American girls, as Olympic Gold Medalist Picabo Street once was to her. “There are so many young kids that write me letters. I’m their hero. That’s amazing to see.” But she’s more of a celebrity in Europe’s alpine nations, where skiing is the passion of the entire population. “It’s pretty cool, especially in Austria. They all recognize me. They ask for autographs and ask about the cow. It’s not in a stalking way. So many people are just ski fans,” Lindsey says, with a chuckle. The interest and support of her fans, however, is contrasted with the loneliness of the long racing season trips, during which she mainly lives in Austria. “I never get to see my friends which sucks,” she says and jokes, “Luckily I’ve got Olympe, my cow.” Kildow keeps her exclusive pet with farmer foster parents not far from her winter home in Kirchberg. Last year she even jumped in as godmother for “Sunny,” Olympe’s first calf.

Liking Lindsey is very easy for most of the people who meet her – which is why she’s also popular with her rivals in a way few others are in the skiing circus. Some of her adversaries, the German Maria Riesch for example, have become real friends. Maybe it has to do with the fact that she’s remained a regular “girl next door” despite her success – apart from the tiny fact that she loves to race down icy slopes on narrow slats at tempos more suited to the freeway.

Lindsey likes to play tennis and ride her bike; she reads books and listens to rap music (“Kanye West’s ‘Stronger’ motivates me during training”); she loves Myspace and “Law & Order”, sushi and “Kaiserschmarrn.” Lindsey, however, has another personality trait which some other top athletes don’t have: She can laugh at herself. “Bode Miller is responsible for my nickname,” she discloses, for example, in an interview. “We went bowling together in Innsbruck with Thomas, then still my boyfriend, and he wrote my name wrong: ,Kildon.’ From that developed Don Don, The Don and a few other modifications.”

On September 29th, Lindsey and long-time-boyfriend Thomas Vonn got married – Thomas also being an (ex)-racing skier – in a ceremony in Park City. “Thomas and I are a great team,” Lindsey says, “and skiing is actually the one thing that we hardly ever have conflicts over. He understands the stresses and sacrifices of skiing and he’s the one who can get me through the day when I am feeling down.”
With Thomas at her side and the large crystal ball in her bag, Lindsey comes across as being happier than ever before. “If you work hard,” she says, “it will pay off in the end.”