On the Thursday before racing even started at Soelden, Lindsay Vonn had a very busy day.

The World Cup kicks off with a women’s giant slalom Saturday and a men’s giant slalom Sunday, but by Thursday evening Vonn had already attended two press conferences, been touted by Head CEO Johan Eliasch as one of the best skiers out there and received the Serge Lang Trophy as the “2009 Skieur d’Or,” or Skier of the Year as recognized by the international ski journalists’ association, the AIJS.

Eliasch said the recent addition of Vonn to his company’s stable of athletes was “a fantastic addition to our team.”

With the addition of Vonn, he said, “We have the three best racers in the world in women’s (ski) racing.”

Vonn joined her good friend Maria Riesch as well as two time World Cup champ Anja Paerson and male racers Bode Miller, Didier Cuche and Rainer Schoenfelder on stage representing the whole Head team.

Vonn said the decision to change to Head skis and boots had been “a bit of a risk,” but said the transition was going well.

“I felt comfortable on the boots right away, and on the skis.” She said she has ironed out most of her ski selections for the season.

“Slalom has been the hardest because there’s so many models,” she said. “I pretty much have my skis picked out in GS, super G and downhill and now it’s just a process of narrowing down the skis I want to ski on in slalom. … I need more time on injection (water injected snow) to really be able to say definitively what I want to use.”

She said training had gone well, that she was as strong as she can be, that her competitors are very strong as well and that it was time to get racing. “My work is definitely just beginning.”

Giant slalom, the only alpine discipline she has not recorded a World Cup win in, was where she said she felt most improved. “I don’t, obviously, know how the races will go yet but I’m really optimistic.”

Her goal for the weekend, was to make it into the top five “and be smiling at the end of the day.”

Vonn said she hopes her successes, coinciding with the 2010 Winter
Olympics will help promote the sport in the U.S. and get more Americans
watching her sport.

“Basketball, baseball, football they’re all major sports in the United
States. While ski racing isn’t on top of the list I think it deserves
to be a little higher up,” Vonn said. “I’m just trying to get people to
watch, you know. It’s such a great sport. It’s really exciting and it’s
really extreme actually. People these days like extreme sports, and
downhill, you know, going 85mph is definitely pretty extreme.”
A couple hours later she hoisted the crystal Serge Lang Trophy presented by AIJS president Robert Seeger.

Patrick Lang, the AIJS vice president and the son of the trophy’s namesake said his Dad would have approved of the choice.

“He would have liked that she is such a charger down the hill. She is a
great promoter of ski racing, of the sport, a great role model for the
kids also, and she is charging.  And she is American, and he would have
liked that, too.”

Lindsay Vonn photo by GEPA