Ladies Speed Team Gets Ready for Val d'Isere
VAL D’ISERE, France (Dec. 19, 2014) – So far this season, the ladies’ speed team has been in the business of making history, with a podium sweep in Lake Louise. And the entire team is riding that wave of excitement going into this weekend’s race in Val d’Isere.
Without a doubt, head speed coach Stefan Abplanalp’s motivating spirit has been a contributing factor to the ladies’ success this year. At the team meeting, he simply stated, “Downhill day is our day. You guys were heroes in Lake Louise.”
READ MORE: INTERVIEW WITH LINDSEY VONN ABOUT WINNING A COW IN VAL D'ISERE
The first downhill training run was scheduled for Thursday, but Mother Nature had different plans. Heavy snowfall on Wednesday night led to a cancellation of Thursday’s downhill training run. Instead, the ladies had an afternoon volleyball match, followed up by a fun White Santa team gift exchange to celebrate the holidays.
After landing in third in Friday’s downhill training run, Lindsey Vonn (Vail, CO) said, “I’m coming in with a lot more confidence and self-belief. I finally trust my knee and I feel strong. I just need to get back into the swing of racing. I feel good, and it’s a totally different feeling from last year.”
Laurenne Ross shreds to 11th in the Val d'Isere downhill training run. (Getty Images/Agence Zoom-Christophe Pallot)
After her historic Lake Louise comeback victory, Vonn is sitting at 60 wins across all disciplines—just two wins shy of Austria’s Annemarie Moser-Prll's 62 wins. In Val d’Isere, Vonn has won the downhill three times, tying her with Moser-Prll and Switzerland’s Marie-Theres Nadig on most downhill wins among women.
What does Vonn think about her third place result in training? “I thought it was solid skiing, but I made a big mistake in the middle part of the course,” said Vonn. “I just was too late with my pressure. It was bumpy, and I got really, really wide. It cost me a lot of time. I know I have a lot to make up tomorrow.”
That’s not all, though. The ladies’ speed team talent runs deep. Stacey Cook (Mammoth Mountain, CA) and Julia Mancuso (Squaw Valley, CA) shared the podium with Vonn in Lake Louise—finishing second and third respectively—and Laurenne Ross (Bend, OR) finished that weekend with a fourth place and a sixth place in downhill. Alice McKennis (Glenwood Springs, CO), Jackie Wiles (Aurora, OR) and Julia Ford (Plymouth, NH) are also all skiing fast and will be aiming for top 20 tomorrow.
It may be quite the challenge, but history can be repeated. Abplanalp has told the ladies this many times, while reminding them to stay grounded. “They’re excited, and I am too, but we’ll try to get our feet back on the ground,” said Abplanalp. “[For this prep period,] we trained on the men’s course in Beaver Creek. That was challenging, and showed them again that they have to work hard to keep up the level.”
QUOTES
Stef Abplanalp
It was an outstanding performance in Lake Louise. To do a triple podium as a team is not happening every weekend. That was for sure special. The whole team has a lot of confidence now. They know the hard work is paying off now. If we can link to the result we had in Lake Louise, and have an athlete on the podium each race and in the top 10, that would be great.
We were able to build up a lot of confidence in the athletes during the summer program. Technically, we did a lot of GS and really got the basics mastered again. That was important.
It would help to have two downhill training runs here. That would help us to adapt to these snow conditions. It’s a bit softer; there’s a bit more moisture in the snow.