This time of year I enjoy rolling through the sports channels and stopping at NBCSN or one of the Fox channels to watch some winter sport for 15–20 minutes. If I find downhill skiing, I’ll watch for an hour. It’s such a badass sport and I’m thrilled I get a chance to see it more than just during the Olympics.
Saturday I caught the men’s World Cup race. Sunday I caught the women’s, which just happened to by Lindsey Vonn’s last race before she retires.
I read the piece linked below this morning and loved how it summed up and put into perspective both Vonn’s career and the sport itself. It’s seriously crazy how fast these athletes go, how literally on the edge they are, and the ridiculous angle of some of these mountains. At yesterday’s race there was actually a great camera angle that showed the 65-degree decent out of the starter’s gate. That looked stupid. As this article points out, there is a race that begins with an 85-percent grade. For those of you who have forgotten your middle school geometry, that’s basically skiing straight down the side of a building.
Anyway, if you’ve enjoyed Vonn’s career, or even just like to watch Olympic skiing every four years, I think this is a good read. The comparison of her 2010 Olympic downhill run to silver medalist Julia Mancuso’s is great. Mancuso skied a technically perfect race, but went home with silver because Vonn was/is insane.