Vonn looks for new hills to conquer

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Lindsey Vonn had a few hours to enjoy being the first American woman to win two World Cup alpine skiing overall titles -- and to take the all-time lead among U.S. women with 46 podium finishes, one more than Tamara McKinney -- before she was being asked about her next goals.

But that’s OK. Vonn, of Vail, Colo., had already planned to intensify her grueling training schedule so she can be prepared for the Vancouver Olympics next February.

‘In the summer I don’t have a life. I’m in the gym six to eight hours a day, six days a week,’ she said during a conference call from Are, Sweden, where she had won the final World Cup downhill of the season.

‘I don’t get to do the nomal stuff most people do. I give all my time for skiing. I’ve worked my whole life to be at this point of my career. I didn’t go to prom and didn’t go to regular high school for a few years.

‘I’m willing to sacrifice even more to take the next step, so this summer I’m going to work twice as hard as last summer to prepare for these Games. And I hope it pays off and I hope I’m able to accomplish my dreams.’

Vonn had clinched the World Cup downhill title and needed only an eighth-place finish today to mathematically clinch the overall lead. She won today’s race in 1 minute, 42.49 seconds, .40 ahead of Germany’s Maria Riesch.

That was a poetic ending if ever there was one because she had also won the season-opening downhill in Lake Louise, Canada.

With three races left at the finals, Vonn has 1,688 points in the overall standings. Riesch is second with 1,299 and Anja Paerson of Sweden is third with 990.

Vonn, known as Lindsey Kildow until her 2007 marriage to ski racer Thomas Vonn, has 21 career World Cup victories. That’s third among Americans, behind Bode Miller’s 31 and Phil Mahre’s 27.

But an Olympic gold medal is also on Vonn’s wish list. She was sixth in the combined at the 2002 Games as a teenager and in 2006 finished a miraculous eighth in the downhill after taking a nasty fall during a training run and spending the night in the hospital.

She will rank among the favorites in several discplines in Vancouver, and she said she’s ready for the test.

‘I have been thinking a lot about the Olympics, especially the last few weeks, and I feel like I am a lot more prepared this time around than I was in the past,’ she said. ‘It’s been a challenge at times to be able to manage all the press and media over the last two years, especially after winning the overall last year, that’s made me better able to handle those situations.

‘I definitely know there’s going to be a lot of pressures and a lot of expectations in these Olympics, but I feel like I’m ready to handle it. Or I hope I’m ready to handle it, at least.

‘The Olympics, they mean everything. The overall titles have been incredible and something you work incredibly hard for, but the Olympics are very special. Americans only watch those two weeks during the Olympics and they probably don’t see our sport any other time in the four years until the next Olympics. So I feel like this is my time to show America skiing, and how extreme and cool skiing is.

‘It really is a great sport. It may not be snowboarding or the X Games, but it’s still very extreme and I hope these Olympics give me a chance to show everybody who I am and show them the sport that I love.’

-- Helene Elliott