It’s Time – Show Your Colors

Here we are. Showdown after showdown. Mano e mano. Grab your seat and hold on. Drama, tragedy, glory will unfold countless times over the next two weeks. It’s Winter Olympics time again. All they hype, the self-induced pressure, the realization of representing your country.

If you think about it, most of these athletes are doing this all season. Dozens of races and competitions. This is just another competition in a long list over a taxing season. Can you really make this into something special, bringing something extra when you’ve already endured three months of a season and have two more to go? What will you do – treat it as something out of the ordinary, or as just another race?

Well, it depends. There are philosophies for both approaches. Although the PR guys and gals want you to tell the world it’s special, a once in a lifetime opportunity to compete here, some don’t want to treat it that way. It puts too much stress on a single result. Making it out to be a make-or-break event for a whole season is neither fair nor realistic.

Treating it as if it’s another yearly world championship is probably fair, but again, it’s only one event. Many want to base the success of a career on Olympic results, like winning Super Bowls, or golf and tennis major tournaments. Yes, it’s a big deal, but there are so many variables under no one’s control – visibility, temperature, snow conditions, changing wind, which nation’s coach sets the course to favor their team’s strengths. Then there’s what bib number you draw – no one wants to be first, nor do you want to be more than 15th.

All that said, it is important. It is a major goal, but it’s not the be all, end all. Still, we love to see these athletes compete on these big stages. There is nothing bigger, nothing that can make a career, nothing that most people love more than winning a gold medal.

And for those who admit it does mean more, the heroics of extraordinary efforts touch our hearts. Lindsey Vonn comes immediately to mind.

I know what competing with no ACL is like. I played American football for two seasons after severing one. Didn’t miss a single practice back in the days where every day involved full contact. Then I pro ski patrolled for two seasons 14 hours/day six days a week without one. Several years later at 180 lbs. I squatted 605 lb with two severed ACLs. So, what Lindsey attempted was possible. Not at all likely, but possible.

She defied very long odds, and was very fortunate to have no swelling. But it also speaks to her overall strength, her body’s ability to quickly adapt and compensate for joint support, and her mindset. Gold medal courage and mental toughness.

She could have easily thrown in the towel. Instead, she was determined to pursue a dream. The rumblings of some said she was too old, had too many injuries; it was too late. She had her chances, make room for someone else.

So many things working against her, yet she not only endured, she exceled. Do you know she’s already won two World Cup downhill races this season, becoming the oldest athlete to win an alpine World Cup race, and leads the World Cup Downhill standings? That she now has 84 World Cup career race wins, second all-time in women’s races only to Mikeala Shiffrin’s incredible 108 and only two behind Ingemar Stenmark’s 86 total wins for men.

Unfortunately, her dream of downhill gold was not to be. Trying to shave hundredths of a second, she clipped a gate with her hand, sending her arm wildly spinning behind her. At speed in mid-air, with no skis on snow to anchor her, it was more than enough to twist her body and skis sideways, resulting in a horribly awkward fall. Surgery to stabilize multiple breaks in her left tibia followed. Her season, and at 41 probably her career, her comeback, are over.

We don’t know yet what other damage the accident may have caused. She’s lucky it was her left leg and didn’t involve the tibial implant in her right knee. That would have dramatically complicated recovery. It may be difficult at this point, but let’s be thankful for that.

I wish Lindsey a full and complete recovery. I hope she hangs up her competitive skis. It will be hard. I wouldn’t be surprised to see her return to the World Cup. She is that determined and that good. But I’m not sure it will be worth it. I want her to live and ski another day. Sometimes the only way to do that is to stop making it a contest. Make it a joy just for you – the kind you have when no one else is looking.