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BEAVER CREEK — Saturday’s downhill will be the first women’s World Cup downhill race on the Birds of Prey course. Thus, unlike most other World Cup stops, no skier will step into the starting gate with a distinct experience advantage.
“It’s nice to know we’re all on the same playing field,” said Lauren Macuga. “It’s fun to see who can just learn it and ski it at the same time.”
Macuga was one of six members of the women’s U.S. speed squad to meet with members of the media in the Peregrine Room at The Osprey on Friday night in Beaver Creek. The 22-year-old is expected to be a top contender in Sunday’s super-G after winning a pair of FIS-level races against a stacked field at Copper Mountain last week.
Don’t count the 22-year-old out in the downhill, though. The Park City native was second in the final training run on Friday morning.
“I know it was a lowered start, but to be able to have that kind of speed on the bottom half of the course is definitely very nice to know,” she said before adding she has a couple turns on The Brink to clean up. “I can’t wait for tomorrow. I don’t think I have any expectations. I just know I want to go fast.”
Her teammate Tricia Mangan said the fact that none of the women have seen the course before certainly affected the learning curve during the three training run days.
“You can watch the men, but it’s totally different when you ski it yourself; so I think Day 1 everyone was feeling it out,” the 27-year-old said. “I would say Day 2 people started to attack more. So, maybe the playing field was more level, but each run counts.”
All of the skiers mentioned they received significant beta from the men’s team, which competed on the slope last weekend.
“They sent us video — I’ve been texting them throughout the training runs, so that is a huge advantage,” Mangan said.
Jacqueline Wiles made her World Cup debut at Beaver Creek in 2013.
“Back then, I was just wide-eyed and excited to be here — and still am,” the 13-year U.S. Ski Team veteran said. “The feeling of racing in the U.S. is like nothing else.”
Mangan — who also made her World Cup debut on home soil, but in Killington — agreed.
“I’m a big believer in ‘you have to see it to believe it,’ so hopefully there are lots of young girls out there that are watching,” she said. “Hopefully, we can inspire them to dream big.”
Lindsey Vonn joined her five teammates roughly 15 minutes into the press conference and stuck around to answer a few solo questions afterward.
“It’s been really fun,” Vonn said of rejoining the U.S. Ski Team. “I’ve missed being on the team, having teammates, just talking ski racing and figuring out how to be fast.”
She said one goal embedded into this comeback is sharing knowledge from 20 years of World Cup experience with her younger teammates.
“I think they’re going to be fast with or without me,” she said. “But hopefully, I can give them a little bit of an extra push.”
“She’s really engaging and eager to help us all out,” Wiles said. “I think it’s really special for all of us. It’s really cool to have her back.”
After missing huge chunks of the 2013 and 2014 seasons and citing injuries as a reason for her retirement in 2019, Vonn was asked what convinced her to get back on snow.
“What changed my mind was that I was just put back together again,” she said on Friday. “I’ve been struggling with injuries since my first ACL in 2013, and I’ve pretty much been injured almost every year after that. The last few years of my career were I think a lot more challenging than I let on, but I feel stronger now than I did in my mid-to-late 20s.”
She also said her “passion for skiing has never gone away.”
“I just physically wasn’t able to do it anymore,” she continued. “So, now that I have the chance to physically do what I love, why would I not try? Life is short, you have to live every day to the maximum, and that’s all I’m doing.”
She plans to return to the circuit in St. Moritz on Dec. 21-22.
“I haven’t had a lot of time to train. I think I would have been ready for this weekend if I’d had the points in time, but just the way my exemption from WADA lined up, the timing I could start racing and the points list, I couldn’t physically make it possible. So St. Moritz is the next race,” she explained. “But I think it’s the perfect place to start because I know that hill very well.”
In regards to age, Vonn seems to think 40 is just a number, pointing to gymnast Simone Biles as one example of an athlete who exists “outside of the confines of what we believe is the right age” for a particular sport.
“I don’t think I’m reinventing the wheel,” she said. “I’m just doing what I feel is right for me but, at the same time, continuing on what other women have done before me.”
Vonn said the hardest element of the comeback has been getting her equipment dialed in. She’s using a completely different model of boots than what she had five years ago and also has a new technician.
“I think fundamentally, I’m in a great place,” she said. “And now it’s just fine-tuning to be able to be truly competitive.”
When asked about how she will define success, she provided a bold answer.
“Success is not just participating,” she said. “While I’m very excited to be participating, I definitely have goals and expectations, and I’m trying to be as patient as possible with myself on this journey and take it step by step — and not skip any steps. I know my way back to a competitive level might take a race or two, but I certainly intend on getting back to where I was before.”
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