For Kildow, Pain but No Gain

Austrian Wins Downhill, Injured American Is 8th

SAN SICARIO, Italy, Feb. 15 -- Her back ached and throbbed, and her mind wasn't quite right, but early Wednesday afternoon Lindsey Kildow settled into the starting gate at the top of the same course that, two days earlier, tossed her aside like a crumpled piece of paper. In the Olympic downhill, Kildow had gone from contender to curiosity, and there was little chance, given her condition, that she could catch Austria's Michaela Dorfmeister, Sweden's Anja Paerson or the other skiers with whom she regularly contends on the World Cup circuit.

"I wanted to do it, even if I wasn't going to do well, you know, because I just had to try," Kildow said, her cringing face revealing the stiffness in her back. "It's the Olympics, and you work so hard to be here, you can't just give up. You have to try."

So she tried. But the pain in her back, not to mention, as she said, in "my left butt," made it difficult to make turns pushing off her left foot. And then there was her head. "Over those rolls where I crashed," she said, "I was a little bit conservative."

The gold, then, was left to Dorfmeister, the 32-year-old former overall champion in the World Cup who is retiring after this season, and now has the final piece on her résumé. Her time of one minute, 56.49 seconds over the 1.9-mile course beat out Switzerland's Martina Schild, the granddaughter of 1948 Olympic downhill gold medalist Hedy Schlunegger, by 0.37 of a second, and was 0.27 ahead of the multitalented Paerson, who took the bronze and is poised, perhaps, to win four or even five medals.

Kildow, on skis less than 24 hours after being discharged from a Turin hospital, was eighth in 1:57.78, a spot behind fellow American Julia Mancuso. After Kildow's accident, Mancuso -- who had skied well in training all week -- became the best American hope for a medal. But with the snow on the course a bit softer -- and therefore slower -- than in training, Mancuso couldn't carry enough speed to the bottom and was never a threat.

Mancuso and Kildow grew up together through the different stages of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association's development program, and this was to be the stage for their rivalry to go international. The two are not close, and Mancuso said she hadn't watched Kildow's crash in the days leading up to the competition.

"It's not really that great to analyze when people crash," she said.

But the analysis of Kildow, both physical and mental, was well under way by the time the race started at noon under flat gray skies and in front of a grandstand that was barely half full. By the time she arrived at the mountain, she had been through electrotherapy, taken a "pretty high dosage" of anti-inflammatories, used heat packs on her back, done whatever she could to improve her range of motion.

"But the moment I stand still," she said, "it really hurts. My muscles are not wanting to cooperate with me."

Kildow's father, Alan, who is currently estranged from his daughter, said in a telephone interview Tuesday that he didn't believe Lindsey should ski even if she felt able. But the Kildow team on site, which includes the U.S. team coaches, her mother and her boyfriend, former World Cup skier Thomas Vonn, decided that if she was physically able to go down the mountain, it would be best to get her out there sooner rather than later. Indeed, Kildow said, "Not racing wasn't an option. It was an extremely last resort."

That, Vonn said, was most important mentally, for should her health improve, Kildow could contend for medals in both the combined, which consists of one downhill run and two slalom runs, and the Super-G, a larger, longer version of the giant slalom with wide, sweeping turns that is most similar to the downhill.

"If she didn't have this run today, it would have been the combined," Vonn said, referring to her next event on Friday. "If it didn't happen in the combined, it would've been [the next event]. Whatever the first event is back, it has the high possibility of being that cautious day where it's like just feeling it out, testing the waters again. It's a massive crash, and you've got to test the waters again."

That Kildow tested the waters so soon was a surprise to several observers, particularly given the violent nature of her crash, in which her legs splayed and she slid down the mountain on her back, tearing her ski suit. Indeed, Vonn said he had gathered his belongings in preparation for an early flight home with his girlfriend. But ski racers are different. "It's always there," American Kirsten Clark said. "It's always a possibility."

Kildow said she remembers going over a rolling hill in Monday's training run, then realizing she was turned back around, looking up at the hill she had just passed. "I just know that my skis weren't goin' in the direction that they should've been goin' in," she said. She couldn't remember the ensuing 10 minutes, though CAT scans revealed that her head was all right.

When Dorfmeister, Schild and Paerson strode out to the finish area to receive their medals, Kildow stopped a slew of interviews and stood politely. With the Austrian anthem playing over the loudspeakers, Dorfmeister's gloved right hand covered her mouth, then wiped tears from her eyes.

"The Olympics," Dorfmeister said later, "are motivation enough for any athlete. It's very important to participate. It's very important to show what you can do."

Which is, Kildow said, exactly why she reappeared at the top of the same mountain that sent her tumbling two days earlier. Now, her first run out of the way, the question becomes: At what level can she participate?

"I wanted to get a medal, but I still have more chances," Kildow said, "so don't give up on me yet."

Alpine Skiing Women's Downhill G: Michaela Dorfmeister, Austria S: Martina Schild, Switzerland B: Anja Paerson, Sweden U.S. Team 7. Julia Mancuso 8. Lindsey Kildow 19. Stacey Cook 21. Kirsten Clark Next Event Friday, women's combined (one downhill run, two slalom runs)