Winter Olympics will miss star power of Lindsey Vonn when she’s gone

She was an Olympic champion, in the conversation as the best Alpine skier in history, and then her body was broken. A skier himself, Kildow is one of the reasons Vonn took up the sport. No words can describe how much you mean to me and how much i love you. But from start to finish, Vonn had to stop and start, unsuccessfully choke back tears, and downright cry. She had to miss the Sochi Olympics because of her knee injury.

The best slalom racer in the world, Mikaela Shiffrin, is now broadening her horizons to include downhill skiing in order to satisfy her need for speed. This will be her fourth Olympics. A tour through Vonn’s house is like walking through a ski museum. Now, one more time, she encounters a different set of circumstances.

Vonn’s grandfather, Don Kidlow, passed away in November at the age of 88 and the American is hoping to do him proud on her Olympic swansong.

PYEONGCHANG-GUN, SOUTH KOREA – FEBRUARY 04: Yunhoo Kim prepares the ice at the Gangneung Curling Centre ahead of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics on February 4, 2018 in Pyeongchang-gun, South Korea.

One of the skiers Vonn must watch for is Sofia Goggia from Italy.

The results from the first two days of men’s downhill training support Miller’s theory, with Canadian gliding specialist Manuel Osborne-Paradis going fastest on Thursday and similarly-styled Italian Christof Innerhofer laying down the quickest time on Friday. Eight years younger, Goggia took second behind Vonn on the second day of the World Cup downhill race. And then Vonn, Red Bull athlete, disappeared the Coke bottle next to her microphone on the dais. Goggia is smaller than Vonn, but her style is very similar to Vonn’s.

Vonn said her increased mental strength really comes into play when she’s in the starting gate. She skidded helplessly about 40 feet in the snow. She won a gold in the downhill and a bronze in the super-G at Vancouver in 2010.

Vonn ran into quite a bit of travel trouble making it to South Korea this week.

KRANJSKA GORA, SLOVENIA – JANUARY 06: Mikaela Shiffrin of United States of America in action during the Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup Women’s Giant Slalom on January 6, 2018 in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia. She shared updates from her 24-hour journey on Twitter.

“She’s shouldering an enormous amount of pressure right now, regardless of whether she is racing or not – she’s that good”, he added.