TORINO: Alpine: Lindsey Kildow entered in Olympic DH

By Published On: February 14th, 2006Comments Off on TORINO: Alpine: Lindsey Kildow entered in Olympic DH

TORINO: Alpine: Lindsey Kildow entered in Olympic DH{mosimage}Lindsey Kildow has been entered in the Olympic women’s downhill, and the U.S. team’s top coach said the decision of whether or not she starts will be made on Wednesday morning. The team entered Kildow, Kirsten Clark, Stacey Cook and Julia Mancuso in the race.

‘We want to leave the door open’ said U.S. Ski Team alpine director Jesse Hunt. ‘If she feels well enough, we want to give her that opportunity.’

Carolle Montillet of France, the reigning downhill champion, will decide before 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday whether she will compete. She also crashed on Monday.

Kildow is on her way to Sestriere from Torino, where she spent the night in a hospital after a vicious crash in the second training run for the women’s race. On Tuesday morning her boyfriend said she had requested coaches not remove her from the race, in which she had been positioned as a strong medal contender.

‘The reality is that Lindsey’s going to give us an idea where she is’ said Hunt. ‘I think the key thing is that if she’s motivated, ready to go and prepared to put down a strong run, that’s what we want. If she’s not prepared to do that, it doesn’t make a lot of sense for us to do that.’

Hunt said Kildow was sore in her lower back and pelvic area, that she would be examined by the team’s physical therapists, and that the decision could be made as late as Wednesday morning.

Hunt disregarded the notion that the course retrofits contributed to the accident, echoing sport authorities who pointed out that her accident could have occurred anywhere.

‘I think the course is an excellent course, and it’s prepared well’ said Hunt, who was standing in the Soleil Boeuf section where the accident occurred. ‘The snow is very grippy on the hill, which makes it easy to catch edges. That’s what Lindsey did.’

Kildow was negotiating a series of three rollers and a jump that were built of snow to give the course more terrain.

Last February, the women campaigned to have the speed venue relocated and organizers defended it vigorously.

At that point, they liked the downhill but not the super G. At World Cup finals in March, Austria’s Renate Goetschl circulated a petition, which was submitted to organizers.

In June, Jean-Claude Killy said the course would not be moved, and in July, TOROC began to give the course a facelift. At that point, competition manager Gianni Poncet gave Ski Racing a tour.

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