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"It was really cool," recalls
Kildow, who was 14 during those World
Championships. "I actually got
into the finish corral, telling the
people 'I don't have my credential,
I'm on the ski team, see my uniform?'
I got all these autographs. It was
pretty funny."
This month, Kildow will attend another
World Championships, but this time
she will go as the star of the U.S.
women's team and be a true contender!
When the biennial World Championships
are held Jan. 28-Feb. 13 in Bormio,
Italy, Kildow figures to be a contender
for medals in downhill, super-G and
combined. If things go well in Bormio,
the 20-year-old who represents Ski
Club Vail will be one of the most
compelling U.S. stories heading into
the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin,
Italy.
"I've always got it in the back
of my mind," Kildow says of next
year's Olympics, which will be her
second. She was 6th in combined in
Salt Lake City in 2002 - the best
US women performance in Alpine Skiing!
"I know it's coming, and I'm
trying to prepare for it. This whole
World Championships is a preparation
for me. It's the highlight of my season,
and my goal for the season, but it's
just a practice, a trial for the Olympics."
In two World Cup downhills last week
on the course where the World Championships
will be conducted, Kildow finished
second and fourth. She leads the World
Cup downhill standings and is third
in Super-G.
Kildow races all four events, but
she lives for the speed and excitement
of downhill. Top speeds in last week's
downhills exceeded 80 mph.
"Downhill is so much fun, I can't
explain it," Kildow said. "It's
unbelievable. It's just the feeling
of going fast and making these unbelievable
turns. You're just laying the ski
over and making a sick arc at 70 mph.
It's a feeling I can't describe."
Trying to explain that exhilaration,
Kildow relives a fall-away turn she
nailed in Thursday's race. "I
was probably going 65-70, and it was
so cool!" Kildow says. "I
thought to myself, 'Yeah, that's it!
That's awesome.' It was just sweet."
Fearless on the slope
Kildow learned to ski when she was
3 and began racing when she was 6
at a tiny ski area near the Twin Cities
called Buck Hill, which has a vertical
drop of about one hundred meters.
Buck Hill is a nice place to learn
slalom - it also produced the U.S.
top slalom racer, Kristina Koznick
- but it's not big enough for a decent
giant slalom, let alone downhill and
Super-G.
So Kildow joined Ski Club Vail at
age 11. There she would be coached
by former U.S. Ski Team women's coach
Chip Woods and learned how to be a
downhiller.
"Ski Club Vail has a very good
speed program," said Kildow's
father, Alan, an attorney, who was
a promising young racer in his teen
years before blowing out a knee at
age 18. "The kids go through
a progression where they begin to
get comfortable with high-speed turns,
rolls and jumps, things like that."
From the beginning, Lindsey enjoyed
speed and lacked fear. "I think
it's because I had such a good progression,"
she said. "There was no reason
ever for me to be scared. It was always
a safe environment. I always felt
like it wasn't a problem."
Steady climb
Kildow made the U.S. Ski Team's development
team shortly after the 1999 Vail world
championships, worked her way up the
ranks and finished sixth in combined
at the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics. Last
season she made her first World Cup
podium, finishing third in a downhill
in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, and won
two medals at the world juniors championships.
In November, Kildow won this season's
first downhill at Lake Louise, Alberta,
and was third in super-G two days
later. She was second in a super-G
in St. Moritz, Switzerland, on Dec.
21.
"The first time I felt like I
made that big step was in Cortina
d'Ampezzo when I was 3rd , but when
I really felt like, 'OK, I'm here
to stay,' was the first race in Lake
Louise," Kildow said. "I
was like, 'That wasn't hard, I can
do that every day.'
"I think that's when everyone
realized I'm not just someone who's
going to pop in there every once in
a while, I'm going to be around."
Kildow's performances on the World
Championships course last week suggest
she will be a force there in downhill
and Super-G, but head women's coach
Patrick Riml says the course doesn't
matter. "Lindsey is going to
be in the hunt for the win anywhere
we go," Riml said. "She's
a good glider, but she is also a very
good technical skier. That's a good
combination."
Kildow, who is often compare to the
flamboyant Picabo Street, would be
the focus of attention on the U.S.
team in Bormio if not for Bode Miller,
who is leading the men's World Cup
overall standings.
"Bode," Alan Kildow said,
"is going to suck about 80 percent
of the oxygen out of the room."
Even that works to Lindsey Kildow's
advantage. "I don't want the
main focus to be on me," said
Kildow, who got Miller's autograph
when she was masquerading as a ski
team racer at the 1999 world championships.
"It's way too distracting. It's
good he's around, because it does
take off a lot of the pressure on
me."
Mind-set of a champion
The 2006 Olympics never are far from
her mind. This season her physical
training program was designed for
her to peak at the world championships,
a test run for next season. She also
has thought what it would be like
to go to the Olympics as medal favourite.
"I don't want to think about
it, because I know what position I'm
going to be in, but I've got to prepare
myself," she said. "Every
day, every race, I'm trying to master
the art of being relaxed, skiing normally,
the way I ski in training.
"Hopefully I will be going into
the Olympics as World Champion in
some event. I'm going to be the one
everyone wants to put down as a favourite.
Hopefully I will be able to handle
it, but I think it shouldn't be a
problem. I'm ready for it, I think."
John Meyer
The Denver Post
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