Things looking up for downhill racer Scott Macartney

WHISTLER, B.C. — Ski racer Scott Macartney doesn't remember what everyone else wants to forget — the sight of his limp body sliding 60 yards across the finish line at Kitzbuhel, Austria, then convulsing for several terrifying seconds after a final-jump crash.

For his teammates, waiting at the top of the scariest downhill on the World Cup tour, the scene drained all race-day adrenaline.

"I wanted to vomit," said Marco Sullivan. "But I had to race in 20 minutes."

The Jan. 19 crash left Macartney unconscious for 12 hours, about half spent in a medically induced coma. On his 30th birthday, no less.

"The doctors were nervous about the outcome right until the time they brought him out of a coma," said coach Phil McNichol. "He actually started moving on his own a little bit."

No surprise, then, that Sullivan and other teammates applauded when Macartney walked onto the pool deck of the U.S. ski team hotel in Whistler, B.C., this week, joining them for the first time since being airlifted by helicopter from the course in Austria.

"We all started cheering and clapping," Sullivan said. "Just to see him was, like, wow."

Friends and teammates say he looks and acts like the old Mac, the Seattle native who grew up skiing Crystal Mountain, where his parents have been ski patrollers for three decades.

Macartney, a two-time Olympian in his 10th season on the national team, is 10 pounds lighter because of a month of doctor-mandated inactivity — a heart rate above 100 would put dangerous pressure on his injured brain. But this week he made the four-hour drive to Whistler, site of the 2010 Winter Olympics, for the alpine World Cup and a sweet reunion.

Chances are remote he'll race again this season. But that doesn't mean he's staying away, not when the Olympics are two years away and practically in his own backyard. The men conclude their World Cup with a giant slalom today while the women compete in super-combined (shortened downhill and slalom) Sunday.

After being cleared by doctors, Macartney put on skis Thursday to help groom the men's super-G course, then radioed race reports to teammates from the finish area. He plans to be training at full speed by September.

His headaches and short-term memory lapses are gone, as well as the slightly blurred vision in his right eye. He is still getting treatment for a sore neck, and plans to get his left knee examined. He knows how lucky he is to be talking about minor aches and pains, sounding almost surprised himself that he's in one piece.

"Almost a month to the day later, I've got no vision problems, no headaches," he said. "There are a lot of really positive things, a lot of really good stuff right now."

Macartney doesn't blame the way the jump was constructed. He said the helmet did its job, shattering but absorbing the impact so his head didn't. Teammate Steve Nyman said estimates gauged Macartney's speed at 87 mph and the helmet's impact at 112 mph.

The manufacturer, said Macartney, is designing a new helmet where the chinstrap is anchored higher on the head, so if the helmet breaks it won't come off. He says they're calling it "The Scott Macartney Retention System."

Macartney recalls flying off the final jump, his left ski catching too much air, the desperate attempt while airborne to regain his balance. The small mistake was compounded into disaster.

"I remember being in the air and fighting," he said. "Once you get caught by the wind, it's over."

He hit the ground on his right hip. Then his head whiplashed to the snow, shattering his helmet, leaving his face to scrape on the snow as he slid.

Before the crash, Macartney had joined a group of U.S. men experiencing breakthrough seasons on tour with his career-first World Cup medal, a third at Val Gardena, Italy, in December. On the ill-fated Kitzbuhel run, he was headed for a top-10 finish.

Yet Macartney remains upbeat. He got a belated birthday party at home, with friends calling it the "Glad You're Not Dead" party, and his mom, Laurie, presenting him with a "replacement" helmet — a beehive hairdo of bubble wrap.

"I'm getting back into working out," Macartney said. "In terms of next year and bigger picture, life, things are good."