Skier Lindsey Vonn is worth price of admission — and then some

As the all-but-sold-out 2010 Winter Games creep nearer and the "secondary" ticket market heats up, fans often ask: Is it really worth it to pay $500 to watch an event?

Answer: Depends on the event, and who's paying. That might sound trite, but it's true. For most people, the answer is no. But if you're a true Olympic fan who believes the Games are unique moments in time — and a performer with a potential "legend" label comes along to compete in them at his or her peak — the answer might well be yes.

Every Winter Olympics has a couple of those moments, when a major player from a winter sport breaks through and writes his or her name into the Olympic record books with an unforgettable performance. The trick is identifying those people and events in advance.

It's not an exact science. But it's fun to speculate.

Barring some unforeseen injuries or performance drop-off between now and then, a handful of names immediately come to mind when you're asking the price-of-admission question. If I had to, I'd pay the going rate to watch any of them perform, just for the historical significance, and the ability to say I was there. We'll bring them to you one at a time over the coming months.

First pick: Easy. Lindsey Vonn, U.S. alpine skier.

Minnesota native Vonn, 24, is coming off the greatest World Cup skiing season by any American, male or female, and one of the greatest single-season alpine performances by a woman of any nation.

The two-time overall World Cup champion won golds in the downhill and super-G in the recent World Championships. She also captured the World Cup point crowns in both of those disciplines, and placed second in the super-combined and third in slalom.

Her nine World Cup victories this season give her 22 total, well above previous record-holder Tamara McKinney's U.S. record of 18. Vonn stood on the World Cup podium with a top-three finish this season 16 times. No American ski racer — Yakima's Phil Mahre included — can touch those numbers.

Oh, she's also fearless and tough as nails. Vonn skied out the season, and wrapped up her World Cup crowns, with one glove duct-taped to her pole after a nasty, deep cut on her thumb, from a broken champagne bottle at a World Championships celebration, caused her to lose her grip. She also has the sort of star power and role-model ethic that make TV executives and advertising moguls drool.

All that remains for Vonn is to cement her place in history with a multiple-medal Olympic performance. Recall that in the Turin Games of 2006, Vonn was a solid medal favorite in the speed events but suffered a nasty downhill training crash at the Games. She rose from a hospital bed and finished eighth in the downhill, earning the "Olympic Spirit Award" for her grit.

Call it karma earned. The planets seem to be aligning for Vonn's races on the slopes of Whistler Mountain next February. While she is particularly deadly in the speed events, Vonn will be a medal threat in all five disciplines — downhill, super-combined, super G, giant slalom and slalom.

If she's feeling it, Vonn could very well lay down a historic performance greater than Croatian Janica Kostelic's epic three-gold, one-silver run at the 2002 Salt Lake Games.

Only four Americans — Andrea Mead Lawrence (1952), Penny Pitou (1960), Tommy Moe (1994) and Bode Miller (2006) — have won two alpine medals in the same Games. No American has won three. But none has ever gone into a Games with the resume and intangibles possessed by Vonn, who, if she gets lucky and stays healthy, could best all Americans before her, and even challenge Kostelic's crown.

The Whistler women's downhill course, one of the steepest in the world, is to Vonn's liking. She finished second there in a race in February 2007, clinching the World Cup title.

Etching her name in the Olympic record books is about all she can do for an encore.

"Over the past two years, I've learned a lot to prepare myself for these Olympics," Vonn, whose thumb might require a second surgery, told The Associated Press last week. "So I feel right now like I'm ready. I want to win a medal so badly. I'd do anything to win a medal."

Don't bet against her.

Ron Judd: 206-464-8280 or at rjudd@seattletimes.com