Lindsey Vonn

Lindsey Vonn circa 2018. I looked at several top racers same turn. They're stern, concentrated, serious. Except for this one. She's happy.

This site hasn’t paid Lindsey Vonn a great deal of attention, primarily because she was retired when I started it. Racing or not, she gets plenty of attention—including an undo amount of the tabloid variety. Celebrity for its own sake isn’t my thing. Jealousy may be part of it, but generally I find it tacky and dull. Vonn has a large public record, sporting and otherwise. And other than ski racing it’s none of my business. I’ve seen a couple long interviews from her latter racing/early retirement days. Her honesty about injury, emotional/psychological pain, and her family’s sacrifices to forward her career, is admirable to say the least. Saying she wouldn’t visit the White House if invited after the 2018 Olympics ranks her at the top of my list for civic decency, and for nervy confidence. Many people think athletics and politics should not mix. But acknowledging cancer within your country’s government is patriotic duty. I can’t recall another high-profile professional athlete having such integrity on any important issue.

    Now down to it: Vonn’s “comeback” has been astonishing…to everyone except her, I’d guess. A partial right knee replacement (Unicompartmental Arthroplasty) implanted titanium shapes to replace damaged bone and cartilage; her intact/sound ACL and other muscles/ligaments remain. Relieving chronic knee pain, the operation enabled her to train and then compete at elite level.

    Last season she ran nearly full Downhill and Super G schedules: DH (5 of 6 races) 6^th, 13^th, 16^th, 20^th, DNF. SG (8 of 9 races) 2^nd, 4^th, 2x13th, 14^th, 16^th, 2xDNF. Not mind-blowing, but very strong for a 40-year-old after five seasons’ absence. It looked like a fine effort—not totally surprising for someone of her caliber, but probably the best she could and would do.

   Lindsey’s Downhill record this season through five races: 400 pts from 2x1st, 2^nd, 2x3d. Just five other times in her career—most recently 2016, then back to 2013 and three times before—has she scored 400 or more points in a season’s opening five races. She’s as good as she’s ever been!

    This is nuts. Vonn has podiumed every DH; Kira Weidle-Winkelman has two, and no one else more than one. The races have been run in bright daylight, on shortened tracks, in fog, on the longest track (Tarvisio) I can recall, cold and mild conditions. No matter. Lindsey Vonn is ruling the discipline. Emma Aicher is in second place, on 256 points; Weidle-Winkelman 3d on 232. There are four DH races remaining. Only DNF(s) and/or a couple finishes out of the T5, coupled with someone who now has at least 180 or so points going on podium tear, will keep Vonn from her 9^th DH title. (Shiffrin is likewise going for a 9^th Slalom globe.)

    As for Super G, just two have been run. Zauchensee was cancelled; six more are scheduled to make eight total. This season Lindsey has a 4^th and a 3d, for third place in the standings—110 pts, behind Sofia Goggia 160 and Alice Robinson 180. (Alice’s SG is almost on par with Scheib’s GS breakout…almost, IMO. Robinson’s Speed points certainly will put her in Overall contention, if DH meaningfully improves as well. And Romane Miradoli, one of my favs, is in SG 4^th place 109 points 2^nd and 9^th.)

    Lindsey Vonn has reminded everyone that she’s a ski racing colossus. “Age is just a number.” Phooey. Age is a BIG DEAL in sport, otherwise more retired acers would return in their late thirties. Vonn’s recent success shows that her ski racing talent hasn’t waned, and her athletic gifts are still fully formed. Keeping in shape for five years, returning to the sport’s pinnacle, is historic.

   Her 45 Downhill victories, IMO, is unassailable. Annemarie Moser-Proll is second with 36; Franz Klammer’s 25 tops the men’s career wins. Vonn also leads Super G with 28 victories; 5 season titles. This is significant, as she competed against Lara Gut-Behrami in high form for seven years or so. (Hermann Maier SG 24 leads the guys.) 415 WAWC starts. Holy shit. Consider, too, that Lindsey missed over a full season’s worth of races due to injury.

    Winning the Downhill and the Super G at Cortina is certainly within her grasp. With good racing conditions, I’ll say DH 1^st or 2^nd is in the bag; Super G T4. And WAWC Overall T5 is doable—though holding off 3+ discipline runners Aicher, Robinson, Goggia will be tough; Shiffrin and Rast are well-set in top two spots, dominating Tech. Paula Moltzan is also right there in Tech for Overall T5/6. Paula’s going ape!!

    Posting this before Tarvisio SG. I’ve been lagging—depression still nags. A genomic test revealed that my serotonin uptake is 30% of normal. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter/hormone crucial for stabilizing one’s mood and sleep, among other neurological tasks. Very important for emotional well-being, having such a low level may help explain my struggles for the past forty+ years, when shitty feelings really began taking over. There’s a medication to fix the imbalance, so we’ll see.

    Also, I’d like to thank fis-ski.com for restoring excellent search functions and wide-ranging statistical results. For about a week the site’s presentation was identical to the phone app: just three or four racers visible, with their discipline standings lumped together, instead of thirty or so competitors and their standings arrayed for easy/fast comparison. The change bummed me out more than I should admit.

    The way the United States is going these days, even such a first-world problem/unrelated annoyance makes me wonder what the point is. We soldier on….