Kildow returns to scene of crash

SAN SICARIO FRAITEVE, Italy — Lindsey Kildow doesn't need to see the replay. She remembers almost everything about her crash, remembers crouching, skiing, losing control and flipping upside down, remembers screaming in "an incredibly large amount of pain."

Friction ripped holes in her ski suit. Force made a wreck out of her back protector. Transportation — a toboggan off the hill and a helicopter into Turin — whisked her to a trauma center. Doctors kept her overnight with severe bruises on her hip and pelvis.

The collision looked like a buckle-your-seat-belt commercial — without the car.

And then the craziest thing happened.

Doctors released her from the hospital, and 24 hours later she went sailing down the same course, at the same 50-plus mph, past her crash site and all the way to the bottom of the same mountain that made a mess of her on Monday.

Kildow did so with her back so locked up it requires electro-stimulation and heat therapy. With a left butt cheek that "doesn't seem to work." With nerves still frayed by what happened two days earlier.

So no, Kildow did not medal in the women's downhill despite being favored to before the crash. She finished eighth, one spot behind American teammate Julia Mancuso.

"I was just bummed, you know," the 21-year-old Kildow said. "It's more of a frustration, anger toward myself of being an idiot."

Linda Krohn did not share in her daughter's disappointment. She came like so many others at this festive women's downhill venue to watch the fearless skier from America who crashed on a course and had the nerve and the chutzpah to come back there so soon after.

Krohn too held her breath while her daughter weaved down the same mountain that almost killed her. And she cheered, just like the German band and the Italians who threatened the world record for longest air-horn blow, when Kildow popped into view and arrived intact at the bottom.

Krohn said this while standing in front of the flower ceremony for the medalists. She was waiting to talk to her daughter, and it did not matter that three days earlier experts thought Kildow would be the skier standing up there.

What mattered was her daughter being there — healthy, safe, alive. Bad back and bum buttock in tow, along with her sense of humor.

Two days after Kildow cheated death, she stood in front of reporters and actually talked about the cow she won in December. That's right. Kildow won a cow.

Well, she actually won a downhill race in France, and the organizers gave her a choice. Take $1,200 in cash. Or take a cow. Kildow, peculiarly and typically, took the cow.

"My cow is in France right now, and she's moving to Austria," Kildow said. "She's coming to see me."

The medalists in the women's downhill were something of surprises because of more than just Kildow's crash. Overall World Cup leader Janica Kostelic, the downhill darling of the Salt Lake City Games, withdrew on Wednesday morning, not feeling well and not wanting to risk four upcoming Olympic races for the women's downhill.

Libby Ludlow of Bellevue was listed as an alternate and did not compete.

That left a 32-year-old Austrian named Michaela Dorfmeister at the top of the podium, crying in front of the cameras, gushing, "It is like a dream."

For Kildow, too, even though it easily could have been a nightmare. She showed so much promise earlier this season — after excusing her father, Alan, from her training and asking him not to come to her races anymore — winning two World Cup races.

She's no longer the skier who failed to live up to her promise last season, all the expectations that came from a sixth-place finish in the combined downhill/slalom in Salt Lake City.

She's the skier who cheated death and raced down the same mountain two days later.

"I just wanted to know I could have done it," Kildow said.

Her mom — and her cow — would be so proud.

Greg Bishop: 206-464-3191 or gbishop@seattletimes.com